Farming themes can be seen throughout my work and products
So, as you may know by now one of my core values is to promote Back British Farming.
But why? What's my link with farming? Why does it mean so much to me?
My Grandfather (who we call Papa) grew up on a cider farm in Devon, this farm has been in my family for over 300 years and is still going today! He and my Granny moved to run a farm in Hampshire which is where my Dad grew up, and has since been taken over by my Uncle.
My Dad moved away to The Cotswolds with his work, but each Christmas, half-term, summer holidays and many weekends were spent in Hampshire at my Grandparents, with my cousins. We would also spend a lot of time in Devon, not only on the family farm but also with my Aunty and Uncle who ran a poultry farm just around the corner.
It’s funny looking back and describing my childhood it all sounds very idyllic, something a little out of an Enid Blyton book. The picnics in the pig meadow, camping with cousins in the fields, rope swings, corrugated iron dens, races to the ‘honey tree’, days spent building dams in streams. But like anything In life, I took it for granted. We grew up with all of that, I knew no different. Not until I left for University when I was 19, after that I realised just how incredibly lucky I had been to have that childhood. The space to run around in, the memories we were able to make together (even if it was a lot of cousin arguments - there was an incident with a fizzy worm that has still not been forgiven -boot fulls and me inevitably crying and making my sister carry me home).
Coming back from University that first Summer was an eye opener. I had been in the city for weeks, I missed the green. I missed the open spaces. But even then I put no thought into who looked after it. Why I was able to enjoy it the way I do.
It wasn't until after I graduated and began making new friends again at home that I realised the amount of work that was involved in farming, something as a child who spent time on farms went straight over my head.
My farming friends would be working at weekends, late into the night and It finally made me realise just how much I had taken for granted and just how little I knew about farming even though I had grown up in the countryside.
The countryside that I have grown up in influences so much of my work, so adding Back British Farming in as a core value to my business just seemed right.
Now Doodling Lucy is a full-time business I use my Instagram platform and my illustrations to discuss and highlight the importance and reasons why we should be backing British farmers!
