How Maddison Dunn Celebrates the Beauty of Nature Through Art

I have always been fascinated by the world of art and its ability to capture the beauty in everything that surrounds us.

I am always drawn to pieces of artwork that can transport your mind to the exact moment it captures - like a photograph frozen in time.

Earlier this year, I met the incredibly talented Maddison Dunn, a local artist that specialises in wildlife artwork and pet portraits.

Maddison’s use of colour and detail immediately drew me to her artwork. Just by looking at a painting, it was like you could hear the bird chirp and gently shake its feathers, or see the hare stand to attention, its ears and whiskers waiting for the faintest sound or movement.

In a world that seems to be losing its colour, Maddison’s artwork celebrates the abundance of beauty and vibrancy that exists in nature.

I caught up with Maddison to discover her journey as an artist, the power of art, the impact AI is having on the industry and her plans for the future!

When did your journey as an Artist begin (and at what moment did you realise you could create a business from it)?

Without sounding like a complete cliche, I have been creating art since I could hold a pencil - my whole childhood was filled with me creating drawings for my family, friends: at school and at home, basically all the time! I have a booklet from primary school where people had to say what they thought your best trait was and my entire book (literally the entire book) was filled with “I like Maddie because she is a good drawer.”

I continued to study art throughout education, from GCSE to A level, and also ended up with a degree in illustration. I don’t think there was ever a time in life where art has not been at the forefront of my life.

In terms of when I realised I could make this a business, it was 2020, I was furloughed from my job with nothing to do at home so as gifts for loved ones with birthdays coming up, I started painting their pets.

I posted a couple online and before long I had people asking if I could paint their pets too. So, at this point, with a little push from my parents, I set up a Facebook page and started taking custom commissions regularly, by the end of the year I had painted 65 commissions and suddenly realised maybe this was something I could really make a living doing. And thus, Pet Portraits by Maddison was born which later developed in Maddison Dunn Artist - Pet Portrait and Wildlife Artist.

Where do you look for inspiration for your artwork?

Since branching out to also painting wildlife, inspiration seems to be everywhere.

I am incredibly annoying to travel anywhere with as I am constantly on wildlife watch, we can be driving through the countryside and I will see a bird of prey flying above and immediately add it to the ever-growing list of things I want to paint.

As I work primarily from reference photos, I also subscribe to a lot of websites that allow me to license reference images taken by incredibly talented photographers, so I do spend a lot of evenings absent mindedly scrolling through photos until something catches my eye. I am usually on the look out for detailed animal portraits where you can really see the detail in the face, as capturing the expression in an animal’s eyes is my ultimate goal.

Do you have a favourite piece of artwork you have created?

I am unfortunately, incredibly self-critical and a perfectionist, so my favourite piece is ever changing as I continue to grow and improve my technique – I could tell you a favourite today and in 6 months time I will probably absolutely hate it!

However, there are a couple of pieces that, even I, am impressed by which is rare! The first of which is ‘Taking Flight’ my most recent of 3 kingfishers that I have painted. I had never painted water in any capacity before this piece and I agonised over trying to get it as close to perfect as possible. While I could probably make some tweaks, I do love this painting a lot.

The other piece that I do have a soft spot for is ‘in the Shadows’ part of my black and white hare duo. I have always painted in colour so midway through 2025 I challenged myself to paint exclusively in black and white and I impressed myself with the outcome. This has definitely lead me to want to paint more monochromatic pieces, so there will be more!

What do you love most about creating for commissions for people (creating something someone will treasure, etc)?

Creating commissions can be incredibly daunting, a lot of time people are trusting me with honouring their pet’s memory as a lot of the pieces I paint are memorial portraits.

While that task can be quite stressful at first, it is the trust that people have in me and my ability to paint their little loves that is overwhelmingly beautiful, and a privilege that I would not give up ever.

I also love the reaction/feedback from people that can be so heartwarming, it will never stop feeling surreal that I have created a piece of art that someone will have in their home and can treasure forever. The initial feedback from whoever has received the painting, whether it be happy tears or a heartfelt message of thanks, makes it all worth it!

What has been your proudest moment as an Artist so far?

Hands down and without a doubt my proudest moment was selling my first original wildlife painting at Burghley house in 2024. I had just started venturing into wildlife art after 4 years of solely painting people’s pets and I was seriously doubting myself and whether I could do this seriously. I was at an incredibly prestigious show, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little bit out of place there in amongst so many well established businesses who had been attending events like this for a lot longer than us.

I felt clueless as to whether people would actually want to buy original pieces if they were not specifically made for them. It had been a slow weekend so I was feeling a little defeated, when a lovely gentleman came by and asked to buy ‘Portrait of a Pheasant.’ I think I must have looked dumbfounded, gawping like a fish, but managed to play it off really cool and finished the weekend on a high note for sure- I will never forget that feeling.

How do you maintain an effective work-life balance while running a business?

Now this is something I struggle with massively, I do try to allow myself time for life stuff, but I when I first started this I would feel a lot of guilt for taking down time when I could be doing more work.

I learned the hard way that overdoing it just hinders me in the long run. I was diagnosed with a chronic illness, Fibromyalgia, in early 2023 which means I suffer with fatigue and widespread pain on a varying level from day to day. When a regular person overdoes life a little, they maybe feel a little bit worse for wear the next day for a couple of hours, whereas if I over exert myself either physically or mentally I can wipe myself out and be unable to move for days, sometimes weeks at a time. So, due to this, there is a delicate balance that I have to maintain to allow myself to feel like a functioning human. But, I do sometimes still get over excited and do too much on a good day, or plan lots (because who doesn’t love to be overly ambitious from time to time!) and I just have to make time to suffer a little afterwards.

I used to love art as a child but steered away from it as a career after being told several times that it ‘wasn’t a real job’. What do you believe is the most damaging stereotype in the art industry (and how can we change this)?

I think that the stereotype that art isn’t a real job is probably the most damaging, that it is just a hobby that you have to keep on the side while you pursue something more academic or more of a traditional career because that is more valuable - as if there isn’t art all around us, all of the time that required a person doing it as their job to do? Whether it being the set design in that film you really liked, the stunning architecture in the city you just visited, the art from the cover of that CD or Vinyl you just bought, the billboard you just passed while driving, or the illustrations in the book you just read to your child - they all required a designer of some sort to create them, which is easy to forget as we blindly consume so much media without realising all of the individual inputs from various creatives.

In terms of changing this, maybe if people realised how bland life would be if all of these people believed whoever told them that art isn’t a real career, that would be a good start!

For me, creating art was always my time to relax and shut off the outside world. What impact has art had on your life and wellbeing?

Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I suffered greatly with my mental health, I had suffered on and off for years but around the age of 13 after a traumatic event I found life incredibly difficult and eventually was taken out of school full time by the age of 14/15. I still attended a couple of lessons at school but the majority of my schooling was done from home.

The only place that felt safe in school was the art room, whether it was because I enjoyed it so much, or because I had the support of my art teacher - I’m not sure, but that was where I wanted to be, drawing away to my heart’s content.

I came out of school with only 5 GCSE’s compared to everyone else’s 9 - 11, and carried on with art through to higher education, with the focus on doing what I enjoyed. I never thought I would be able to get a degree because I always thought I would never be well enough, but art made it possible.

While I am glad to say that as an adult I cope much better with my mental heath, recovery is never linear and it creeps up from time to time, and when it does I choose to paint. Despite the fact it takes a lot of concentration to paint the amount of detail I aim to paint, I find it incredibly relaxing and a good way to silence the mean thoughts that my brain is subjecting me to.

The use of AI has divided the art industry. What impact do you believe it has had on the industry (and how can we effectively control its growth)?

I fear I could talk about this for hours and become very unpalatable to most people as I have very strong opinions on this matter, so I will try and answer this as diplomatically as possible!

AI is unfortunately, everywhere. And I am aware there as different types of AI. When you tell someone you are anti AI, they will point out that it is just an advance in technology that is needed to make life easier.

But what I am vehemently against is the use of generative AI, a person can now ask the chatbot or the AI of their choice to create them an image the drop of a hat. There are then also people that will claim this is their art, having just typed in a few prompts. Despite this undermining the work and the creativity that goes into what real working artists do, it is also actively stealing from artists by scouring its dataset for pre-existing work online to amalgamate together an image that ends up feeling soulless and off putting (in my opinion.)

AI is actively harming both freelance and in-house creatives by having become so accessible and seemingly easy to use, to seemingly the wider population there is no need for a real artist when they can ask AI to generate them a flyer or book cover in a matter of seconds.

Effectively controlling AI’s reach in not only the creative sector but peoples life in general I think lies in education and awareness of its impact, as well as limiting who can access it and what it can be used for.

What has been the best piece of advice you have received since launching your art business?

I am incredibly lucky to have the most wonderful support system around me, my family, my friends, my partner, and other small business owners I have met since starting this journey and I’ve been given so much fantastic advice and tips so it is hard to think of just one!

I will say, I can be incredibly pessimistic, some days really are not great and when you are putting your passion out to people and it is not always received well it can seriously hurt! So, one thing I was advised that I always try to remember is that not every day is going to be good, it doesn’t mean this will not work out and it does not mean I am bad at what I do, even if it can feel like that occasionally.

What do you hope to achieve in the next year? And, how important is continuous development/ learning to your career and business?

I always set myself goals at the start of each year, and maybe prematurely, I am already planning ahead to things I want to do in 2027.

The first one is to enter more competitions, something I have always steered away from for fear of rejection. I also am hoping to begin to stock my work in a few more places - so if any shop or cafe owners are reading this, my DMs are open haha!

Most importantly, I hope to paint bigger and better pieces. I am constantly learning better technique, what works for me, what doesn’t, and most importantly, what my customers want to see.

I’d like to think I’m still a fledgling business, so I am still getting things wrong - both as an artist and an business owner. But with every mistake or misstep I am growing as a person and learning what not to do for the future. Without growth and movement it would get too comfortable, I need to be kept on my toes a little! So, continuing to develop my confidence, my portfolio, and my knowledge is essential for maintaining this going forward.

To keep up to date with the incredible work of Maddison, you can head to her Instagram page (@maddisondunn_artist)!