Holly Wells

Ever since a very young age, art has always been very important to me. It all started with a few half-eaten crayons, a couple scraps of paper here and there, and ever since art has always been the one thing I've been able to fall back on.

Throughout my school years I was obsessed with creativity, in any form. Science and the natural world proved to be my main inspiration, I saw chemistry and genetics as the paint of the universe, the laws of physics the blank canvas we all worked on, and anything that seemed to imply some form of creativy fascinated me. Art was, of course, my leading subject, and in my GCSE and A-Level years I studied Biolgy and Art and Design. Both these subjects were to propel me into the 'real world'.

At University I studied Jewellery and Metalwork at degree level, the natural world and biological forms my key points of reference throughout each of the projects. I discovered upon completion of my degree that, although I enjoyed working with 3D craft and molding metal, my true talent and passion still lay in what I could get down on paper.

After my degree, I fell into several day jobs to get by, none of them particularly inspiring, and my love of art sadly fell to the sideline. The freedom of having my own place meant I could finally get a couple little critters that I had always dreamed of owning again, and thus I became 'mum' to quite a number of fancy rats! It was through the fancy rat community that I found myself back to my artwork after two years, after drawing a couple of little portraits of a friends rats. People loved them, and I had more and more requests, until I eventually decided to start Sweet Rattery Illustrations in January 2013.

Sweet Rattery Illustrations grew slowly in the first year, a hobby that allowed me to bring in a little extra money for vet bills and helping with rescue rats. However, throughout 2014, SRI finally began to bloom and I expanded my range of artwork from just ink illustrations to pencil and gouache, with much of my business now coming from cat and dog owners.

As we find ourselves drawing nearer and nearer to the start of 2015, I am more determined than every to expand 'Sweet Illustrations' further, and for it to become my full time career.