A textile graduate from Cleveland College of Art and Design (CCAD) has been inspired to succeed thanks to the development and support of the thriving creative business community in the north east.
Artist Sharron Bates graduated from the university-level campus in Hartlepool in 2016 with a BA (Hons) Textile and Surface Design degree and is now developing her businesses with help from creative hub Greenfield Arts in Newton Aycliffe.
First-class honours graduate Sharron Bates, 46 from Newton Aycliffe, has already experienced commercial success after receiving a commission to design wallpaper for an international textile studio in Belgium before she had even finished her degree, and hopes to work with them again in the future.
Sharron’s degree Show collection included creative exploration of children’s illustration and picture book writing using mixed media collage. ‘Where’s Brian?’ explores the concept of loneliness in childhood, with Ruby, a little girl whose friend toy monkey Brian goes missing.
After leaving CCAD in July last year, Sharron has been extremely busy building up her illustration and workshop business and has benefitted from the networking and creative opportunities on offer to entrepreneurial artists like herself, which she is keen to be part of.
Having recently established a Creative Forum at Greenfield Arts, an arts and community centre in Newton Aycliffe, Sharron said: “I was finding that I missed being around creative people after graduation. The Forum provides an opportunity for creative people to meet up, bring their work along to inspire and help each other and network with others or even just sit quietly and work in the same space. It’s a flexible ‘drop in when you can’ group which is quickly becoming well established.
