Born and brought up Salisbury, where she still lives, mixed media artist Chess was always artistic but never believed that she was good enough to make a living from her work.
Creative through and through, she is also a talented writer, and completed a degree in English, followed by a Creative Writing Masters, at the University of Exeter.
“I’d always drawn and painted, but never really thought of it as a viable career,” she says now. “But I carried on drawing and painting while I was at Exeter, and was a member of the university’s Art Society.”
But in 2014 she was offered the opportunity to exhibit her work at London’s Exhibitionist Hotel, in the heart of Kensington. This unique art-themed hotel, based in restored 18th-century townhouses, showcases the work of up-and-coming artists on a monthly basis.
The reaction to Chess’s remarkable work, which features iconic figures created from original newspaper clippings about them, was so positive that she began to consider a future as a full-time artist.
“Then I met someone at a gallery in Salisbury who was really helpful, and gave me lots of tips on how to get my work gallery-ready, which was so useful,” she says.
“And then I contacted Wishbone, who now represents me – so in the end, it all happened very quickly, really!”
Chess works in a variety of styles but is best known for her newsprint portraits, and it’s those that Artmarket customers can expect to see in a collection called Legacies. It features portraits of icons such as David Bowie, Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury and Princess Leia – keep an eye out for eight new Bowie portraits, which she’s currently working on.
Born and brought up Salisbury, where she still lives, mixed media artist Chess was always artistic but never believed that she was good enough to make a living from her work.
Creative through and through, she is also a talented writer, and completed a degree in English, followed by a Creative Writing Masters, at the University of Exeter.
The finished pieces, as well as being detailed portraits, have the added dimension of the stories that are attached to them.