As a predominantly landscape and seascape painter, I get all of my inspiration from nature (seen from my paddleboard or sat on the beach with a tea ideally). Like a lot of people, I'm always thinking about how I can make my business (and general life) as planet-friendly as possible, so that we can look after it for future generations.
I've always used second-hand frames for the majority of my paintings. It seems like a win-win-win-win-win situation...
- it's better for the planet to reuse things that already exist rather than making something from scratch.
- you can support charities / small businesses / other human beings if you buy frames from charity shops, vintage markets or eBay.
- it's lots of fun finding and collecting them (just me?).
- it's much cheaper.
- the frames have so much character and history which is just extra lovely.
I also use recycled packaging for every order. I save bubble wrap, tissue paper, newspapers, and cardboard boxes from orders I receive in the post, and family and friends kindly save bits for me too. I use leftover wool / ribbon, recyclable paper tape and brown paper to secure the packages, and pop a recyclable and recycled sticker on the box so you can pass it on and track the number of uses each box has had. These stickers are now available to purchase, so feel free to use them if you have your own small business!
I've also signed up to Ecologi to plant trees for every painting or print I sell. Ecologi plant a biodiverse mix of native tree species around the world, while employing local workers and supporting communities.
"It’s now common knowledge that one of the best tools to tackle the climate crisis and keep our temperatures from rising above 1.5C is to plant trees. They are also crucial to preventing ecological collapse." - Ecologi
You can read more about Ecologi's tree planting projects here.
I've gone through my records and have back-dated tree-planting to the beginning of my business:
and it's something that I pledge to do (and keep increasing as I'm able) going forward for every painting or print sale too:
You can also choose to add an extra 10 trees at checkout if you would like to.
There's a little counter at the bottom of my website that will update as we plant more trees together (although apparently there can be a small delay on this, so don't worry if you don't see this number change immediately after you make a purchase).
Thanks so much for reading. I'm always on the look-out for more ways to improve with sustainability - so I'd love to hear any other ideas you have!
Love,
Emma x
