carol d allick art and design

Local Artist begins to flourish      

A talented and creative Eston woman has put her artistic skills to use by recently selling a number of her artworks at the Hartlepool Art Exhibition.

Carol Allick, owner of Carol D Allick Art and Design, produces three different kinds of work – local towns and places, detailed architectural drawings and coloured, fun drawings, all of which are proving to be very popular. The sizes of which vary from large A2 drawings to A6 print cards.

The Hartlepool Art Exhibition was the sixth and biggest which Carol has taken part in, and she sold two large pencil drawings, 49 cards and eight posters in just two days.

She said: “On the preview show I saw a red dot next to one of my drawings, it was brilliant. It was just the fact that somebody had bought something I had drawn. People always seem to be really interested if you include drawings of their local area. It was really nice to see and I got just as much satisfaction from selling the small £1 cards as seeing the big ones go.”

After working for the Health Authority, producing health and educational literature for 20 years, Carol decided to complete a Fine Arts degree she had been studying for and pursue a different career path, and now her business is based around her hobby and passion.

She said: “I enjoy doing this, I think it's great. I've got a passion for my artwork and for the area. I would not leave here for the world.”

As a graphic designer, Carol had to work to tight deadlines, whereas now she is enjoying being able to work from home and in her own time: “What I do now is in between graphic design and the Fine Arts Degree. I sometimes just start off with a mark on the paper and see where it goes. It can be quite a lot of fun to do that.”

The Hartlepool Art Exhibition is Carol's most elaborate exhibition so far due to the size of the venue and its popularity in the area, and the 49 year-old gratefully received help from LEGI (Local Enterprise Growth Initiative) to make her display possible.

Carol said: “If it had not been for them I would not have been able to do this exhibition. They paid for the frames, all of the cards and 100 posters.”  

Carol's work can be seen in Redcar Tourist Information Centre, Saltburn Tourist Information Centre, Kirkleatham Museum and, of course, Hartlepool Art Gallery, and she is currently on the lookout for more places to take her unique, locally based designs.