Workdays and Weekends: Lynsay Hay

We recently caught up with the super talented local artist and illustrator Lynsay Hay. Her weeks are so busy being a mum to two little girls, doing her fabulous art and working a part-time job in Dunns Art Store! 

Lynsay is a stay at home mummy on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Every weekday evening  from 8pm – midnight she works in her studio creating lovely pieces of art and on a Thursday and Friday she works in Dunns Art Store.  She even has the occasional weekend working in studio! .....WOW! we are exhausted even thinking about this!

Lynsay's art consists of whimsical, brightly coloured paintings and illustrations that she says make people smile. We can vouch for that, we LOVE it.  Her business cards have one of her gorgeous pictures on it and it has graced my desk ever since I got it and definitely adds some vibrancy and fun to an otherwise messy desk!

1. What does a typical day at work look like for you? 

A typical day at work for me starts off with the usual morning rush to get my eldest daughter Esme to school. (I’m not a morning person!). On a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I spend the day with my 3 year old little girl, Amelie. We usually spend this time either; playing at home, going on play dates, taking her to ballet and swimming lessons. Before we know it its school pick up time, then home or big sisters turn for ballet and swimming lessons. Phew! All this followed by tea-time, homework, bath time, story time and bed time.

Once my little dinkies are finally tucked up in bed I can sit down in my studio and start being creative. After preparing all my materials, water cup, brushes, sharpening pencils, paints, palettes, canvas or stretching paper I can get straight to work on a painting or start sketching ideas for new work. Then there are other jobs like answering email enquiries, ordering prints, wrapping prints and updating Facebook and my Etsy page.

On Thursdays and Fridays I also work as a shop assistant in Dunns Art Store, where I get to meet lots of other creative people who come for their materials and advice. One of my jobs is to do the Window Displays which is always challenging but fun. I also help customers choose frames for their artwork and photographs, and I get a lot of my own work framed here too. After work in Dunns and once the kids are bed, I get back to drawing board.

2. What signals the start of your weekend / days off?

What signals the weekend for me is a morning wakeup call from one of my little girls as they often like to get up extra early at the weekend. We all usually head downstairs for a breakfast of Nutella on toast. We like to have a Saturday morning chill out after a busy week, but then head off somewhere for some family fun time. Occasionally I do some work in my studio and Daddy entertains the girls if I’m really busy.

3. What makes for a perfect night in?

A perfect night in for me is when my hubby, Justin cooks a yummy meal and we snuggle up on the sofa with wine and munchies watching a good movie or one of our favourite series. At the moment its “Breaking Bad”.

A perfect night out for me would start off getting dressed up for going out somewhere for a nice meal either with the hubby or friends. It would also have to include good banter, giggles, cocktails, lots of photo taking and lots of dancing.

4. What makes for a memorable day or night out?

A memorable day out for me would be when we went on a family day trip to Pittenweem Art Festival last summer. It was a gorgeous sunny day full of my favourite things, family fun, beautiful art, seaside walk, shell collecting and ice cream. My girls loved looking at all the paintings too, never too young to appreciate art.

5. Tell us about the weekend you’d love to live again?

A weekend I would love to live again would be our recent short family holiday to Disneyland Paris. Just to see my girlies faces light up again when they met all their favourite Princesses and Disney Characters. We all had such an amazing time and it really is a magical place where you forget about the real world while you are there.

6. And now your best ever day at work? 

It is really hard to choose my best day at work as an artist. I had great day just recently when I was invited to have my first solo exhibition in a studio in Northumberland, and in the same day I sold an original to a lady in Australia and a print to someone in Kansas. And I do love seeing my clients receiving or collecting commissions and paintings.

7. Any workday or weekend rituals?

A workday ritual would probably be at the end of the night (usually quite late) when I post my latest work in progress or finished piece on Facebook. My weekend ritual has to be sitting down to a home cooked roast Sunday dinner cooked by my lovely hubby.

8. What’s in the perfect day off breakfast?

A perfect day off breakfast or I should really say brunch is the full works, bacon, egg, blackpudding, and toast. Yum!

9. Any words of wisdom for us? 

My words of wisdom are a phrase my dad used to say alot "We're all Jock Tamsons bairns." 

Lynsay Hay is a local artist and Illustrator. You can buy her beautiful artwork from Silver Linings Design Studio  or contact her directly on her Facebook Page.