BIOGRAPHY
Eleanor Tomlinson is an award-winning artist and illustrator based near South Cave, East Yorkshire. She has been selling her artworks and taking on commissions since her mid-teens. Eleanor's artwork has travelled across the UK and the world. From early on she knew this is what she wanted to do as her career and hasn't let her age be an obstacle in pursuing her artistic ambitions.
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Eleanor has lived in rural East Yorkshire all her life, which has been a huge influence for much of her artwork today. Over the past years, whilst studying for her GCSEs, A Levels and her degree in Illustration, Eleanor has been expanding what she does by taking on increasingly more varied commissions, from pet portraits to bespoke wedding stationery. At the same time Eleanor has been launching increasingly more products and designs and hasn't looked back since.
Three years after graduating from university, Eleanor achieved global recognition for a piece of art known as Jubilee Marmalade Tea which celebrated HM Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee. Later that year, similar recognition followed the release of further tribute pieces following the sad passing of HM the Queen.
Eleanor's creative journey began in 2011, with a single greetings card, when Eleanor was thirteen. She entered a local design a Christmas card competition advertised in a local magazine, The Journal. The competition was ran by Osprey, an Osteoporosis charity carrying out life-changing support in the local area. Eleanor was lucky enough to be the winner of her age category and her 'Robin in the Snow' design was created into Christmas cards to help raise money for the charity. Following this, Eleanor had the wonderful opportunity to help sell her Christmas cards at a local Christmas fair and the experience, of seeing the full process from design to end product, inspired her to design and create her own greetings cards range. Her first cards range, Tilly Trotter's Designs, was born. Tilly Trotter, being a fun family nickname from when she was little.
Each Christmas, for the following 5 years Eleanor designed, produced, and sold her cards at fairs & events whilst at school; even getting her products into a couple of local, independent retailers. By the time Eleanor left school, after finishing her A Levels, she was completing a constant and steady flow of commission work. The following September she moved to Cambridge to start her Illustration degree at Cambridge College of Art, Anglia Ruskin University. Eleanor quickly realised city life wasn't for her and that ultimately, she wanted to continue working for herself and be based in her beautiful home county of Yorkshire. For the subsequent two years of her degree, Eleanor transferred to York St. John University, York. This enabled her to continue her degree whilst expanding her business all in Yorkshire.
Following the end of her course at her Degree Show in June 2019, where Eleanor received the Arts Entrepreneur Award 2019, Eleanor went straight into working full-time for her creative business. She later graduated from York St John University with a First- Class Honours degree in Illustration at York Minster in November 2019. At her graduation Eleanor was awarded 3 awards for her academic and creative achievements: the Art Undergraduate Final Project/ Dissertation Prize, Art Undergraduate Programme Prize and the School of Art, Design and Computer Science Prize.
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Over the following three years, Eleanor's business went from strength to strength peaking in 2022 when she became an overnight sensation around the world following the release of Jubilee Marmalade Tea which catapulted her business onto a whole new level.
In June last year, whilst enjoying a short break in North Yorkshire, Eleanor, along with millions around the world, watched the celebrations for HM Queen Elizabeth II ‘s Platinum Jubilee, including the Queen enjoying ‘afternoon tea’ with Paddington Bear. Eleanor created her own take on this event, and thus ‘Jubilee Ma’amalade Tea’ was born. The original was purchased by a longstanding existing customer within 5 minutes of its launch and after sharing the picture on social media she was immediately inundated with requests for a copy of the picture, which had never been her intention to release. However, she did make it available, in a limited edition signed print followed by an open edition print. And then it went viral! However, Eleanor felt it only right that HM Queen Elizabeth receive the first of seventy Limited Edition Prints as well as the original of Jubilee Fever, for which she received a personal letter of thanks from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle.
After three weeks of nonstop orders, TV and radio appearances and an overwhelming number of messages Eleanor made the difficult decision to remove the print from sale. She had received an unprecedented number of orders for the print, but also this gave her a new worldwide audience and all the items in her online shop were in such great demand, that almost everything sold out! Something had to give.
Eleanor lives in a small village in East Yorkshire and the always supportive locals gave her the keys to the village hall to accommodate the rapid expansion of her business. Her amazing printers worked around the clock for weeks on end to keep up with demand and she was able to use this to setup with all her stock and keep on top of orders. With the help of her incredibly supportive parents, along with neighbours and friends Eleanor was finally able to catch up with all orders by the end of July.
Sadly, just a couple of months later our beloved Queen passed away, and Eleanor again created a wonderful piece showing the Queen with the Duke of Edinburgh – this was also very popular, though Eleanor took the decision not to make this available to buy, and actually gifted the original to the HM King Charles III and the Queen Consort Camilla, receiving a lovely thank you letter from the latter just days after it was received.
Just one day before Eleanor turned 25 she attended the launch party of the Yorkshire Children’s Charity – a huge event held at Grantley Hall in North Yorkshire, attended by non-other than HSH Prince Albert of Monaco. Eleanor had been asked to illustrate the invitation for the event, which was in the form of a short story written by Yorkshire author Milly Johnson, this was made into a small book which each guest received as their invite to the occasion. Eleanor was also asked if she could create a one off piece, to be finished at the event, which would then be auctioned off on the night to raise funds for the charity. This she did and the picture, which featured the Queen’s pony Emma and her two corgis, sold for the amazing amount of £32,000.
Because we now have a new Monarch, Eleanor’s fans are already asking what she is going to create for HM King Charles III’s Coronation. And you don’t have long to wait. The new piece is so full of detail and will be available in various forms including products not available previously on Eleanor’s website. Keep an eye on her social media and sign up for her mailing list to be the first to hear about/see this new piece and the exciting range of new products.