Online Shop Temporary Closure

My online shop is now officially closed for 2 months whilst I prepare to travel the other side of the planet! On December 29th, I’m flying from London Heathrow to Sydney with my partner to explore The East Coast of Australia, Perth and Bali!

I closed my shop a couple of weeks prior to this to help deal with the Christmas madness, although I will probably be missing out on a few sales, the hectic rush for last Christmas postal dates and orders going missing, didn’t feel worth it. I’d love the extra money for my travels, but not the extra stress.

For any last minute Christmas purchases, I’ll be trading at my favourite local market Tobacco Factory Market this Sunday (17th) and also Cirencester Gift Market on the 19th, 20th and 21st of December. You can also find my work in a few local retailers:

  • The Ethical Gift Shop - Sparks, Broadmead, Bristol

  • Koxy Lifestyle - Chepstow, Wales

  • Paper Plane - Gloucester Road, Bristol

  • Homegrown Gift Shop - Windmill Hill City Farm, Bristol

  • National Park Print Shop - Lake Windermere

I’m really hoping this time away will give my illustrations a new lease of life and inspiration for new projects and products!

Recent Commission to Celebrate a Special Day

Recent commission celebrating a very special day where Tessa married her two dear friends in a beautiful venue River Ex Cafe!

I have a little bit of time spare at the moment, so if you’d like something similar, capturing a particular memory, person or pet, drop me an email to maryflorahart@gmail.com

Prices start at £100. You’ll receive a high res digital copy and also as many prints as you fancy🌟For more examples please see here.

Mujer With A Movie Camera

I recently had the pleasure of illustrating a poster for Lorena Pino Montilla, a film programmer and MA Curating Student at UWE, for her curated film season at Watershed Cinema. The title of the season is ‘Mujer With A Movie Camera’. Showing 4 different Latin American films, from female directors, exploring stories of women and young people at the margins of society. These four films are: 

  • Daughter of Rage by Laura Baumeister de Montis

  • Children of Las Brisas by Marianela Maldonado

  • Song Without A Name by Melina León

  • Alis by Clare Weiskopf and Nicolás van Hemelryck

Each film focuses on different hardships in very diverse areas in Latin America, so it was a challenge to try and combine all themes and settings into one, but I’m thrilled with the end result.

The project was brought to life by Watershed and Make Shift, a place for early career creatives curious about film &/or creative technology practice. Each month a different MA student from University of West of England puts together a collection of curated films to be shown to the public. I was incredibly grateful to be chosen to create a poster for this particular one, focusing on the courageousness of female characters and colourfulness of Latin American culture.

Behind the Scenes Shop Work

I’m quite happy with my recent market stall set up, it’s taken me a couple years of trial and error, but I feel like I’ve gotten to a stage where my stall is a fairly accurate depiction of my illustration style, and basically a physical version of my website, that potential new customers and clients can see in person, and get a good idea of me and my work. I think it’s the new sign with my business name and the addition of a couple more frames, that have really tied it all together.

This satisfaction unfortunately doesn’t come without a cost of chaos behind closed doors… My house is my studio and storage for all of my stock and sometimes it can become pretty messy, however my housemate very kindly put some basic shelves together which helps organise the madness, and I’m genuinely very grateful for my corner of crap and cardboard, and the things it allows me to do 🫶🏻