Each season, we choose a different artist to set the tone for what’s to come, illustrating our new menu and the ideas that underpin it. But for Christmas this year, things look a little different than usual. Alongside launching our new menu and festive pantry items, we’ve gathered objects that pour, cut, carry, hang and light up. Gifts chosen to earn their place at the table, in the kitchen or alongside something freshly baked, made by us and people we admire.
We needed a different kind of artist, someone who could turn their hand as readily to a teapot as they could a turkey sandwich. This brought us to Lucy Deaner. The illustrator and ceramicist's expressive, inky lines are incredibly versatile, working across food, objects, scenes and even faces. Her illustrations always have a tactile, handmade quality, which speaks to the craft that underpins everything in our Christmas range, aprons and caramelised almonds alike.
With our Christmas Gift Shop launching, we caught up with Lucy on how she found the process, the objects she’s most particular about, and why a beautiful life is not about chasing perfection. If you haven’t spotted her work across our bakeries, packaging, website and tote tags already, do keep an eye out.
What excited you about this Christmas brief?
This year's thread theme really resonated with me. With a degree and background in fashion, I’ve always been drawn to textiles and embroidery. Seeing my inky illustrations capture the handcrafted nature of stitching and the time and thought it takes to create has been a full-circle moment. Combined with GAILs’ artisanal approach, it’s been all about bringing craft and making to life.
How did you approach it?
I started with getting out my embroidery hoop and stitching (a radish – my favourite veg for form and shape) to see the movements and marks made on the fabric. With a visual reference to work from, I could picture how the inky lines could form and flow for the objects, scenes and lettering. There’s subtlety in each mark.
Tell us a bit about your career so far and how you got started?
This winter, I’ll be coming into my fifth year as a freelance illustrator and I still love it. I’ve always drawn – my childhood memories are of creating pictures and making things for my Grandma. I’d post them to her and she’d stick them in her hallway to show everyone that came in. After a degree in fashion and a career in the corporate world in procurement, I had a pull to come back to the creative world and to make. For me, life is too short and I want to make the most of doing things I love.
After quitting my corporate career months before the pandemic hit, I started to draw again. With time, it turned into something and a little while later, I thought, I’m going to be a freelance illustrator. I feel really fortunate to put my creativity out into the world and for people to resonate with it.
You come from a family of florists – how has this influenced your work or approach?
Being surrounded by blooms, their forms, shapes and colours, brings me so much joy. Nature is perfectly imperfect and so is my work. Things can just be, no rhyme, no reason.
How did you develop your particular style?
I’ve always been drawn to line, form and shape when drawing. I started out initially as a digital artist but after a short time, I wanted to get back to making with my hands and feeling the raw materials. I was looking for an instinctive connection with a material and for me that was ink. I love the process of dipping the nib and pen into the ink bottle, all the inky blobs that drip on the paper and table and the natural thick and thin line. For me, it’s all part of the process. I love to see the brush marks come through when adding texture through ink colour washes and paint.
Tell us about your creative process?
All my ideas start out with a pencil drawing, roughing out forms and composition and getting a feel for shapes. I’ll often research what I’m working on through photography. It’s a great way to see variance and different perspectives.
For client briefs, I then move to the rough sketch stage where I create digitally. For me, it’s a quick way to get ideas out and to edit. I like to work quite quickly through the process, not lingering or losing that initial spark.
For the final illustrations, I then move to creating in ink. I relish that first mark making moment, its looseness and the natural flow of the line, so I don’t like to keep re-drawing the same thing. Once I’ve inked the pieces, I then digitise them and edit on the computer. In the studio, I’ll often have music on, a coffee on the go and a candle lit for that cosy feeling.
What’s your workspace like?
I’ve recently moved to Somerset, to a place in a valley among trees and wild ponies in Exmoor National Park. Creating beautiful studio spaces has been my priority. I’m a believer that your surroundings really impact your wellbeing and creativity. My illustration studio looks out onto the trees and has lots of wall space for hanging inspiration and current projects. I also have two desks: an antique table with beautiful carved legs for drawing and spreading out all my materials. And then my computer desk is one I’ve had since I was a teenager that’s moved with me over the years. It’s covered in inky marks. I love how each holds memories of my life.
What objects do you like to have around you?
I came across the quote by Elsie De Wolfe: “I’m going to make everything around me beautiful, that will be my life” and it’s become my motto. It brings me so much joy to have beautiful things that I cherish around me whilst working: a plaster flower petal by Jess Wheeler that I’ve framed, a winged ceramic horse that I’ve recently made. And all my inky scribbled quotes of phrases I hear or see to inspire me, reminding me that some of the best moments of your life haven’t happened yet.
What objects have personal meaning for you at Christmas?
I have a set of handcrafted candlestick holders that I bought from a treasure trove of a brocante in France. It was one of those moments when you see something out the corner of your eye. I was drawn to them. I could immediately picture them on my Christmas table, nestled between the winter foliage, flickering with warm light and giving a glow to everyone sat around eating, chatting and laughing. It brings me so much joy each year to think of all the amazing memories they hold.
Photography & Illustration Lucy Deaner
Words Kate Hollowood