About Me
Hello! I'm Denise. I’m a full-time, professional artist working from my home studio in Sheffield, England. I am quite a traditional painter. I like my collectors to be able to recognise the subject matter without it being literal. My work is intended to be atmospheric and concerned with feeling rather than realism. My goal is to create paintings that I love, for people who want to have beautiful things in their homes.
Practice
I use acrylic paints and mediums made by Golden. I really love the quality and colour. I work intensively in my daily painting practice using watercolour paper. I use wooden panels for larger work.
Benefit to Collectors
I don’t work with galleries. Instead, I have my own professional, secure website where I sell my work directly to my collectors. This way of running an art business comes with several benefits to you.
I don’t have to pay the standard gallery commissions of 40-50%. This means that I can set prices without having to load gallery commissions on top.
You don’t have to traipse to a gallery which may well be many miles away from where you live to see the work. If the gallery is nearby, you’ve still got those pesky commissions to pay. On top of that, you don’t get “sold to” whilst you are browsing.
When you purchase work from me it is sent directly to the address of your choice by Royal Mail’s 1st class, signed for service. My prices include p&p within the UK and if, on receipt of the work, you don’t like it for some reason or you’ve changed your mind, just send it back and I’ll refund you the cost in full. Guaranteed!
My story
I came to Sheffield to study art in 1979. After I left art school with my degree, I found that life got in the way and I stopped painting. I never quite let go of my creative self though and instead, I continued to ‘paint in my head’. I worked doing other things until the time was right.
In 1999 my partner and I founded a sculpture business in London and we started on a market stall in Spitalfields. It was and still is called Wrightson & Platt.
We began by casting baby hands and feet in bronze and glass. Later on, we began using precious metals, and our work became more complex. After 10 years of hard graft, we attracted investment. That gave us the opportunity to establish our own foundry in SE London together with a gallery in Knightsbridge. We had outlets in Hong Kong, Dubai and New York.
We became the foremost company of its type in the world with many imitators but none have surpassed our quality, creativity and ingenuity.
Wrightson & Platt's Gallery in Knightsbridge | Baby hands & feet cast in bronze |
A special racehorse in bronze with Denise Wrightson and Vicky Platt | 18ct yellow gold acorn and oak leaf pendant |
During this time I also discovered gardening which became another great passion. Here’s the garden that we made at our London home.
My partner and I decided to start a new chapter in our lives. We left the business in 2015 and moved to Italy. At last, I had time and energy to start painting again and to make a garden the Mediterranean way.
We returned to the UK in 2017 and I set up my home studio here in Sheffield next to the Peak District and with another garden to inspire me.
I now paint every day. Dx