Victoria Gordon
Victoria Gordon uses her art to kick off a new career for unique hand-crafted products and commissioned pet portraits. With recent success at Scotland Trade’s Fair for her highland cow tea towel winning an award.
Getting Started
Victoria Gordon Art was created in 2019. It all started in Victoria’s kitchen after she was diagnosed with a debilitating illness called ME. This left her homebound and unable to work or continue her degree. That was when she was gifted some watercolours by her partner and the journey started.
Victoria says ‘I am a genuine animal lover. Whether it be on a dog walk or travelling around the highlands, we are constantly on the lookout to see the magnificent wildlife Scotland holds. Over the years we have built up a catalogue of hundreds of reference photos and this was where I went to start my first painting of a Kingfisher. I sent my partner a picture of the finished painting to which his response was ‘where did you buy that’. This then spiralled into sales to friends and family who also started commissioning me to paint bespoke pet portraits, starting this incredible journey.’
The tag line of the business is ‘Connecting you to Nature’ and this has been her guiding light since starting this business.
‘The majority of wildlife art on the market today is stylised into a ‘cute’ pose. From the outset, I knew I wanted to be different and showcase the authentic animal. That is why I see every animal before I paint them. I want to understand their individual characters and personalities, then I can bring this to my painting. This is also why all of my animals have their own names, because they become such characters! We have a section of the website detailed to telling you each animal’s story. This also translates into our packaging, which has their individual stories on.’
The Enterprise Journey
Victoria’s journey to today started with a lot of trial and error and taking everything as a chance to learn, grow and develop. After Brexit and the start of Covid, the cost to outsource the production of her giftware products skyrocketed.
‘From the outset, I knew I wanted the highest end products possible at a reasonable price to customers. So, I knew we had to change and adapt. This was when I decided to move the production to my home. After vast research we turned the spare room in our house into a workshop. Which is fully equipped for me to design and print each product by hand. Ensuring I can now produce the highest quality products, that are as individual as the wildlife featured on them.’
Victoria went full time in her business last February as until then she was still working as a part time mental health nurse alongside running the business. She also feels at the moment social media is making everything look like instant success and she wants to acknowledge that creating a sustainable business is mainly hard work and determination. Having worked alongside the business until it got to the point where it was unrealistic to continue both employment and the running of the business and now she is full time in the business it is flourishing.
Victoria Gordon Art has had some help along the way too. Her partner has really encouraged her to see that her artwork can be used to build a business and is a constant support. Also, the support of the local community in Kinross and the surrounding areas has also been invaluable. She started attending local craft markets and grew a following of supportive locals who are still backing her to this day.
‘We have also had help from GrowBiz which has really been invaluable. I had zero business background before starting this journey. So having their support there to bounce ideas off and ask all those questions you think are silly has been a game changer for me. I would advise anyone in Rural Scotland who is starting or running a business to reach out to them’
Victoria continues:
‘My biggest mistake to date has been thinking I can do it all myself. As an artist I am a natural perfectionist and I have found giving up control difficult. But I have learned that people are only too happy to help when you ask. And this doesn’t mean sacrificing your vision, it can actually enhance it. We attended our first trade show in January 2023 and it was a huge success, with us winning a best product award for my Tea Towels and gaining more than double our goal of orders. But this success was mainly because I asked for help along the way, enabling everything to be executed to a high, professional level. ‘
Supporting Conservation
‘I am so fortunate that I have had a few, winning the best product award at Scotland’s Trade Fair was definitely one. But I think personally my biggest achievement is that my artwork has actively helped the conservation of endangered animals across the globe.
For the last two years I have made it into the Highly Commended category with Sketch for Live, a global artist competition that helps to raise money for conservation. Meaning that not only was my artwork selected out of thousands of entries, from across the world. But my work has been auctioned off and raised money to help the conservation and survival of endangered wildlife. I have also been working with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, painting the wildlife from their collections to then be made into products and sold to help their conservation efforts.
This is something I am really keen on pursuing as my business grows. I have so many ideas for collections that can raise money for conservation charities I am passionate about.’
At GrowBiz we’ve been asking how the cost of living is affecting businesses and Victoria has two parts that are affected: high-quality giftware products and commissions of pet portraits.
The cost-of-living crisis means she has had to adapt her pet portraits and commissions. They are high price point items, as it is an original piece of art. Victoria puts her whole heart and soul into each commission, ensuring that their pet’s individual personality comes through in every painting. Pet portraits are also her absolute favourite part of being an artist. And as a dog owner, she understands the connection we all have with our fury friends and take the task of immortalising them in paint very seriously.
At Victoria Gordon Art they have adapted to include more friendly payment options set up through Klarna, that can be used across the entire website, not just the pet portraits. As well as individual, personalised payment plans for the commissions, that can be tailored to each customer's individual requirements and these options have proved very popular with customers.
Support
Q. How do you feel about the support you've had from GrowBiz?
GrowBiz have genuinely been a huge help for me! I have zero business background, so it was great to have someone to discuss my ideas with and get advice from. I genuinely don’t believe my first trade show would have been as successful as it was without the advice I was given.
Q. How has the pandemic/cost of living crisis affected your business / family / well-being?
I think the pandemic affected everyone is someway. It was a really scary time and we didn’t know how it would impact our loved ones. Painting was really my solace in that time, especially as I was still working as a mental health nurse, alongside running the business. It was my way to switch off and process everything that had happened in the day.
I really noticed the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on the run up to Christmas 2022. During the few markets I partook in, I noticed that customers language had completely changed. No one was ‘treating themselves’ and there was a lot more discussions along the lines of ‘I already had a lot of mugs’. Thankfully we had a very successful trade show and my products are reasonably priced for both trade and retail so I hope we won’t be effected too much this coming year. This was something I am acutely aware of for my stockists and we have done everything we can to keep my prices down.
Q. What, if any, net zero goals are you working towards and how are you achieving that?
I built Victoria Gordon Art on a green business plan. We have an environmental and ethical policy on my website for all of my customers to see. Wildlife and the environment are so important to me, so I ensure that we are as environmentally friendly as possible. For example, every piece of paper I use to create my products is FSC approved, this includes all of my product packaging and mug boxes. I use recyclable, biodegradable and compostable cellophane bags to store my cards and artwork. And as previously mentioned, as everything is made in house, I can ensure that every part of the process is recycled correctly. I also source my blank products from UK companies and all of my postal deliveries are done via companies who ensure they offset the emissions.
I also brought a Grove with a charity named Trees for Life, who are aiming to rewild Scotland and restore the Caledonian Forest in the highlands. Helping fight climate change and create habitat for countless Scottish wildlife, big and small. I am aware that although I use FSC approved paper and recycle, that as an artist my work is paper based. Therefore, for every Pet Portrait and commission I do, I plant a tree in my Grove to help offset my paper use. This is something I am looking to grow and would love to be able to offer customers the ability to plant a tree with their order.
Victoria Gordon Art - Trees for Life
Q. What other support do you feel you need at this time?
My next goal is to grow my online presence and I am looking into learning more about my digital analysis. GrowBiz are supporting me with this and I have some sessions with a digital advisor coming up. My mind boggles at the thought of SEO’s and website analytics so I am really looking forward to learning more about this. I want to be able to grow the Pet Portraits and commissions and reach a wider audience of potential customers.
Looking to the future
Victoria remains focused on plans for the future and is looking to recruit a small team to create her products and handle the online/wholesale orders. She knows her strengths lie in creating and designing be able to be evolving designs, developing new products and growing her original art sales by getting into galleries.
It is very important to Victoria to keep her business production within Scotland and as handmade as possible.
‘I built my business on a Green business plan and by controlling the production, I can ensure every part of the process is recycled correctly. I love that when my customers buy a Victoria Gordon Art product, they are getting genuine Scottish Wildlife, a high quality, handmade product that is produced in Scotland and made as environmentally friendly as possible. In order to help preserve the incredible landscape that both we and the wildlife call home.’
As always running a business involves wearing a lot of hats and Victoria is not only an artist, but does all the marketing, social media, accounts, production, digital analysis, packing and customer service to name but a few. She has learnt that asking for help and knowing you don’t have to do it all alone has helped.
Lastly, we asked Victoria if she has any advice to wannabe entrepreneurs?
‘Firstly, I would say go for it! Life is short and doing what makes you happy is so important.
Also, if it is a creative/ art-based business I would advise taking as much time as possible to experiment and find you style, before starting. Once you have to start creating/painting to a deadline, the pressure can mount. I would recommend knowing your style so well its like your own language. Then when the deadlines come you can relax and enjoy the process, without worrying about how to technically create the piece.’
