Abigail Tippetts and Roz Berkeley-Hill

Both Abi and I were constantly drawing and crafting as children, in fact Abi used to sleep with collage projects and scissors at the end of her bed. Roz was always fascinated by colour and one of her first words was “purple”. Art always was and is our happy place and we couldn’t have imagined doing anything else.

Vibrant, layered and expressive

Connect with other artists and make sure you have contact with other people. Working on your own is hard, so it’s important to have networks. Other artists are generous with advice, so don’t be scared to ask.

We want our art to uplift people and make them smile.

“Opportunities don’t just hang in the sky like balloons, they are attached to people”. This came from the James Clear newsletter.

Anni Albers, Lucienne Day, Raoul Duffy, Jean Dubuffet, Matisse, Lara Bowen, Becky Blair, Emily Powell, Jessica Ford, Helen Dealtry, Caroline Duffy, Ali Mackie, Jessie Woodward. Infact if you look at all these, they are all fantastic Colourists’s and that’s what lights our fire.

Yes. Rather than doing art and it ending up gathering dust over years in a draw, you can put it out in to the world. People can react to what you have done straight away. We are very lucky to have a very supportive following and community on instagram, so it’s lovely to hear positive things when you are trying something new. It’s also help us connect with other artists and do collaborations such as Roz’s teaching with fellow artist Caroline Duffy. It’s also brought us great opportunities, like designing two fashion ranges with Oasis, a window and packaging for Weleda and the opportunity to teach at The Garden Museum and The National Theatre.

As there are two of us, we always paint in multiples. This is our advice to anyone who paints. Don’t buy one canvas, buy two or more and work on them at the same time. This helps you get in the creative flow as you can move from one piece to another. Rather than fretting over what isn’t working, it allows you the headspace to keep going, letting you come back to the problematic piece with fresh eyes. Also we find the other person can work out what it needs. Sometimes if we are working individually, we will WhatsApp a photo of what we are working on to the other to ask, “What do I do?” Abi or I will sketch over the top of the photo and say “Add a little more white, top left” for example. It’s so helpful and helps us keep up momentum.

We draw inspiration from each other, nature and other artists.

Abi finds this easier than me. Intuitively she knows when to stop, but sometimes I want to keep going making marks and adding too much detail. It’s good to have the other to rein you in.

We are members of the Royal Academy and The Tate, so if we feel at a low ebb creatively, it’s important we get out and look at exhibitions. We are also there for each other, so sometimes when we need a rant or to get something off our chest, we have the other to listen and commiserate.

Our absolute favourite are the Daler Rowney acrylic inks. They are so beautifully vibrant and are fabulous to use as the colours are so intense. When we bring them to our workshops, everyone wants to make a note of what they are and buy them after. If we had to choose our favourite of this range, it would be the neon pink. It’s just pure joy in a bottle.

We haven’t worked much in oils, so would like to investigate these more.

We’d love to create a piece a piece for interior designer and Interior Design Masters winner Roisin Quinn. She’s not scared of colour or pattern, and we’d love to see our work in one of her spaces.

Working on packaging for Weleda. We love their ethos and delicious smelling, natural skincare, so felt so proud to see these Weleda gifts out in the world. It was a dream collab.

It would be our retreats. We will be doing our third art retreat this year and something magical happens with who comes.We are great believers in what you put out in the world, you will get back. Painting together is so restorative and is good for the soul no matter how talented or experienced you are.

Seeing our dress collection for Oasis Fashion on massive billboards on the tube. My son said “that’s your art Mummy”.

I like to create mood boards of photos and inspirational colour palettes and images and then Abi likes to sketch out rough ideas before I arrive at her studio. Then we just dive straight in and start painting. The process is pretty organic and often ends up differently than how we’d originally pictured. This is good as we believe in embracing happy accidents and changes of direction. It keeps us on our toes.

To be honest we both can’t imagine not doing anything creative, although Roz once would have liked to train in editing for film and Abi jokes she’d be an amazing plastic surgeon!