Women-owned

Becky Mackay, aka Arts for Animals, started over 14 years ago, based on my love of embroidery and nature. Inspired by the work of Beatrix Potter, I wanted to make people fall in love with and appreciate the beauty of nature, with the medium of embroidery feeling like the perfect choice to represent fur, feathers, and fluff.

Over time, my love of fiber arts extended to the world of knitting, especially projects that involved knitting in the round and knitting colorwork or stranded knitting—the drawing of the knitting world!

Drawing and painting have also always accompanied me throughout my life, and I especially love using colored pencils and watercolors/gouache.

I would describe my work as whimsical and homely, and it always comes back to my obsession with the natural world.

The main body of my teaching has been at Artspace Cinderford, where I have run art classes for over 7 years for both children and adults.

I also teach classes at local village halls in the Forest of Dean area and am excited to start teaching at a local workshop venue in Ross-on-Wye at the start of 2027.

When I'm not teaching, I work in the horticultural sector and have worked on organic farms for the last 12 years, growing vegetables, flowers, and willow commercially. It has very much influenced my artistic work, as I am year on year meeting new creatures and aspects of the natural world to fall in love with and to inspire new work.

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