Paddington portrait artist talks about her lockdown success

But now Becky Dutton-Geraghty’s portraits have become so popular that TV and sports personalities have been ordering in their droves.

The Paddington resident lost most of her income from her job in fashion retail recruitment – one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic – so she turned to her creative side to keep herself sane.

At first, she simply helped her sister-in-law Megan out with pet portraits for her dog grooming business Shampooch in Warrington.

But people became so charmed by the images that they started asking for all sorts of prints.

Becky Dutton-Geraghty has launched a very successful portrait business thanks to Covid

Becky said: “People started ringing and saying: ‘Can I buy one of these?’ It just sort of spiralled off from there really.”

The 38-year-old’s Instagram following grew to 4,000 in just four months and she has already sold around 400 portraits.

Her high profile customers have included Newcastle United’s Andy Carroll, activist and presenter Katie Piper, numerous reality stars from Towie and Real Housewives and even a British World Champion and Olympian.

Becky added: “The biggest for me was when I was asked to do a portrait of Andy Carroll and his kids.

“I was just shaking. I was so overwhelmed but I managed to turn it around in time and I’ve had more orders on the back of that.

Becky Dutton-Geraghty has launched a very successful portrait business thanks to Covid

“What I’ve loved about the whole process has been building relationships with people.

“Behind every portrait is a story. It could be a birth or maybe they’ve shared with me a loss during the pandemic.

“I’ve had a couple of customers who I’ve worked with virtually all the way through their pregnancies so I’ve done baby scan art for them at the beginning and they’ve gone on to have the babies and I’ve done new-born portraits.

“So it’s been great and I’ve had lots of returning customers. I feel like I know everyone’s lives and inside stories which I’ve loved.”

Another popular service Becky offers is ‘merged portraits’ where she uses multiple separate photos to create one family portrait.

Becky Dutton-Geraghty has launched a very successful portrait business thanks to Covid

A common purpose for this is to include a family member in a picture who is no longer around.

Becky said: “It is a privilege. It’s really nice to give someone comfort through a portrait.

“It must be twice a week I get someone messaging me saying they’ve cried when they’ve received and opened the portrait because it means that much to them.

“There are two elements to it. There’s one where families have not been able to do group photos.

“For example, there are people who have had babies during lockdown and they want pictures of their whole family together so it is a really good option.

 

“Then there are people who have had family members pass quite some time ago and they never envisioned they’d be able to see a picture of a loved one holding their new baby.

“I appreciate it’s not for everyone but it has been a very popular service.”

Becky will soon be going back to her day job part time but she will also continue her fledgling independent business.

She sees it as one of a number of silver linings during the crisis – the other main one being all the extra time she has been able to spend with her children Sonny, five, a St Oswald’s pupil, and Bobby, who is nearly two.

Becky added: “I worked in fashion retail for many years and always worked on the creative side doing things like merchandising and assisting stores with their layout.

 

“So I’ve always had a keen eye for details and visuals. Having this time has opened up a whole new world for me.

“It started off as a stress relieving hobby and a few doodles and it’s grown from there.

“It has been a terrible time but there have been some positive aspects to come out of it as well.

“I think a lot of people are re-evaluating how they spend their time and this is definitely something I will continue to pursue long term.”

Becky, who also does an NHS appreciation post once a month by featuring a frontline worker in their PPE, particularly likes to work with mobile phone images – turning something we sometimes consider to be quite throwaway into something permanent and special.

She said: “We capture so many beautiful moments on our phones so for example if you’ve had a new baby you’re not going to have a photographer coming to your bedside.

“These pictures are taken at the most precious times but then there might be a busy background behind or something you don’t want in the image so I can transform it into something to treasure.

“You’ll find you’ll get a lot of natural pictures on your phone as well. Some of my favourite ones have been the dad holding their child’s hand and it’s just them from behind walking. It tells a story.”

Visit instagram.com/peopledigitalprints or to get in touch with Becky email peopledigitalprints@gmail.com