Art and painting very much runs in my family which is full of artists, architects and designers. For as long as I can remember, I have always found joy in creating things - whether it’s a painted lampshade, a sculpture or an oil or watercolour painting.

I loved art at school and I was lucky at Wellington College to have an art teacher who inspired me. After my Art Foundation course at Camberwell College of Arts, I did a BA in Fine Art at Loughborough University. Here I focussed on sculptures made from wire and even made an illuminated gold-leaf tree, along with many oil paintings. Having done art everyday for four years, I confess I fell slightly out of love with it for a while. The confines of art in education make it harder to create art for the pure joy of it.

I have always been interested in the world of wine so I chose to go into the wine industry after university, where I have been working for nearly 10 years now. It is now as much a part of my identity as is art. It was when all my best friends were turning 30 that I thought I’d paint them something to mark the occasion and so Pippa Gardner Studio was born!

My focus is watercolour painting. I paint portraits of people’s houses, churches, well-known buildings and I also create drinks paintings of wine bottles or spirits. I love the details that you find when exploring a building, or even the embossing you find on wine bottles.

As well as painting, I make the frames for the paintings with my dad, Roger. He used to do framing for fun, so has always been a bit of a pro! The whole process of ordering a piece with me is truly bespoke.