A North East artist is having “the best time of her life” creating stunning artwork beloved by people across the country after decades as a struggling artist.
Trudy Kepke, from Seaham, is a full-time artist who runs a stall at Tynemouth Market with the help of her fiancé, Stephen Innes. Her eye-catching art has become well known among regular market-goers for the way it captures the region in a unique way, bringing out the colour and joy to be found in the likes of Newcastle city centre, Whitley Bay, Cullercoats, Holy Island, and many more of our most cherished beauty spots.
Having been a keen drawer and sketcher since she was just seven years old, Trudy was offered a chance to go to art college, but her parents couldn’t afford it due to the miners' strike - so instead she became self-taught, experimenting with pencils and paints over the years and learning from YouTube videos. Although she found herself “addicted” to painting as an adult, as a single mum Trudy found that her drawing eased off when she simply couldn’t find the time to enjoy her hobby while working at all hours.
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Moving around the country with jobs in factories and retail, eventually landing in Seaham in 2012, art ended up going on the back burner. “I was still working full time in retail and pharmacy jobs just trying to make ends meet. Selling your art is very hard to make a full-time income from, especially when I was a single mum,” Trudy recalled.
“The term struggling artist is true. With working full time and having no time to paint, I gave up and lost interest.”
But things changed for Trudy when she met her fiancé Stephen six years ago. The couple decided to take up photography together as a new shared hobby, which led to them exploring the great outdoors together - and re-ignited Trudy's passion for art, even leading to her exploring a completely new way of working.
“I did print some of my photos off and framed them, but to me something was missing and just wasn't right, didn’t feel right for me,“ she confessed. “Though a photograph was great, it wasn’t my art - it wasn’t vibrant in colour, it wasn’t what was inside of me.
“So I started to make my own textures digitally, then applied these textures over my photos in Photoshop and from there I was producing another style of art which was quite different and unique. I also set up a website selling my texture collections, and had a YouTube channel showing other people how to get creative - this was all during the pandemic, so people were so interested to learn something new when they were stuck at home.”
Trudy's new artwork style opened up a whole new world - she was later contacted by the School of Photography to make an online fine art course, which she described as “the best thing that ever happened to me”, as her social media followers soon rocketed with people sending her their work for feedback.
“The greatest thing for me was that I was inspiring other people - not just from the UK, but from all over the world,” Trudy said. “I still get a monthly income from the course, and it’s been running for three years now, plus my sales on textures still do well from the people who take my course and then visit my website.”
After sales soared for Trudy, she was able to give up her pharmacy job and finally become a full-time artist in April 2021. Being self-employed also meant that she was able to explore more art forms, including dabbling in oil painting. “I just simply love every day now,” she smiled.
“What makes my art unique is that I am self-taught, through trial and error and painstaking hours of getting this wrong and right, I create something beautiful and pleasing to someone for them to buy my artwork and to have this on their wall. I love bright colours, and happy feeling paintings - I aim to capture life and colour and make people happy.”
Trudy has since shifted her focus to oil paintings of local scenes from the Northumberland coastline and the streets of Newcastle. “I am inspired by where I live, the sea, the beach, Northumberland coast, and beautiful Newcastle,” she said. “There so many things to paint, and that I want to bring colour and life to, that someone loves and wants to hang on their wall.”
Trudy's artwork has even caught the eye of someone who will be well-known to Newcastle United fans - coach Graeme Jones and his wife Debbie have three of her original oil paintings on display in their North East home. Graeme commissioned Trudy to paint King Edward's Bay in Tynemouth, after her stunning painting of Cullercoats Bay caught his eye.
Trudy has been at Tynemouth Market for around four years and can still be found there every weekend, with people who have done her course travelling from across the country to see her. Her work is also sold at Bishop Auckland shop Malin & Mac, and she will be taking part in this year's Northern Art Fair in Weardale.
“The reaction from customers is fantastic, I receive great feedback and lovely comments about the colours and my style every week,” she said. “I would like to say to all my customers, new and old, thank you to each and everyone of you - you have supported me and my small business and I couldn’t have done this without you.”
She added: “It's great being your own boss - but its even better living my dream. After struggling for years in life with being a single mum, moving areas, having no money, I can say this is the best time I have had in 54 years.”
You can see more of Trudy's amazing work on her website.
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