About Hampshire Portrait Studio

Andrea Meakin started Hampshire Portrait Studio in 2011 to exhibit her animal portrait paintings that specialize in capturing the unique character, personality and expressions of animals people love.

Today, based out of a dedicated log cabin art studio (‘The Doodle Den’) in beautiful North Hampshire, England, Andrea mainly paints wildlife from her own and professional photographs, and accepts commissions of people’s pets and favourite animals.

Andrea believes it is essential to capture the personality of the animals and pets she paints since the difference between a good animal painting and one that makes you smile and becomes a treasured personal momento is all in the detail of expressions and context. Whenever possible she visits and spends time with the animals she paints, getting to know them and using her skilled and experience to identify and capture their unique character in her own photographs. If Andrea is unable to meet the animal in person then she can also paint from photos taken by the owner.

Andrea also paints people, landscapes and a few ‘specials’ when asked (such as an iconic F1 car and historic commercial jet), and Andrea's preferred medium are oil paints but occasionally uses acrylics.

Contact Andrea for more information 07739 571 886

About Me, Andrea Meakin

I am a full time mum who paints whenever I have the opportunity, and love escaping to my dedicated log cabin art studio, turning on the radio and immersing myself in my latest animal portrait painting.

After attending Art College in Rochester, England, I continued painting whilst following a career in travel and tourism that took me around the world several times by sea and by air. My last job of almost twenty years was long- and short-haul cabin crew at a major international airline. My interest in wildlife and the world meant that everywhere I travelled I had the opportunity to capture beautiful photographs of wildlife and local people, some of which I have painted. 

I painted many pictures for fun and for friends over the years but in 2010 after attending several art classes, my art tutor, a notable professional artist, persuaded me to consider fulfilling my life-long ambition of becoming a professional artist.

Although my current focus is animal portraits, I do create artwork for a variety of subjects - including animals, people, still life, landscapes, seascapes and sports scenes.

Contact Andrea for more information 07739 571 886

Recognition

Andrea on the front cover of SAA's Paint magazine, Dec 2014

Since starting to paint professionally in 2011, Andrea has gained second place (2012) and first place (2013) at the Cross Barn Art Group Annual exhibitions in Odiham, selected as the Editors Choice for Painters Online in The Artist magazine (Aug 2012), selected in the Members Gallery for Paint magazine (2013), was chosen to exhibit in Farnham Art Society Annual Exhibitions (2013, 2014 and 2015) and at MIWAS Wildlife Art Exhibition (2014).

In September 2014 Andrea was approached by The Society for all Artists to feature as the front cover Artist for the December issue of the SAA magazine 'Paint'.

She was invited to write an article on how she paints for the Painters Online newsletter in April 2015 where she described painting black labrador 'Ronny' alongside a series of time-lapsed photos.

In March 2015 she was selected as a finalist (Selected not Hung) for the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year 2015. This means Andrea's hare 'Warren' will be displayed in a folder at the exhibition and on the website.

Contact Andrea for more information 07739 571 886

Contact me

Phone: 07739 571 886

Contact Andrea