From a young age, Andie Slayford had dreams of becoming an artist.

Growing up with a father in the Merchant Navy who was "always a bit of an artist" in his downtime, she remembers being creative during her childhood, and went on to study Foundation Design and then Fine Art at art college in Bournemouth.

But, despite being offered a place a Southampton University to further her career, Andie felt it was time for a change of direction.

"I think I had just had enough," she explains.

"I turned the place down because I wanted proper money and a proper job. That was the last time I painted."

Life got in the way of her creativity, and Andie, who lives in Ferndown, found herself working for a local insurance company.

But when her circumstances changed in 2015 and she had to leave work, she felt it was time to turn back to her artistic roots.

"I just picked up my brush again," she smiles.

"I just started making things for the family - I did some paintings of wellies for the family and, for grandparents, I did a picture of the whole family.

"I just had good comments from them, so I set up my Bee Arty Facebook page in April 2016 and now I've got over 200 'likes'.

Andie, 36, threw herself into painting initials for newborn babies and wedding invites, and found her ideas began to snowball.

"I usually receive commissions for personalised watercolour paintings, but I wanted to make a return to using acrylic paints on canvas, which is what I used to work in when I was at college.

"I created an abstract London skyline and, after posting it on my Facebook page, a customer loved it so much she wanted a larger one, but with a specific colour integrated to suit her colour scheme at home.

"Just prior to me posting the painting on my Bee Arty page, the Manchester and London attacks happened. Manchester in particular really affected me. I don't know why. Perhaps as a mother and knowing children were a target made me feel so angry and upset for those affected. I don't even have any connection with Manchester."

Andie decided to create one of the landscapes in patriotic red, white and blue, and auction it off for charity. Canvases were created by Hobbycraft and Andie will be donating money raised to the victims of the attacks via the Red Cross.

In the meantime, she is kept busy with commissions of pet portraits and landscapes and is also hoping to break into fabric design.

She may finally be doing what she loves, but Andie stresses family is still her priority - not least her six-year-old son.

"They're all a massive part of my life - they constantly encourage and inspire me and my husband Pete has been truly amazing - he encouraged me to give up work in 2015 as our circumstances changed. A matter weeks later Bee Arty was born and I received my first commission that same day."

But best of all, is the effect of her work in her little boy.

"I have inspired our son who loves painting or creating something with clay (generally getting messy but that's half the fun)," she says.

"We often go in to the forest and collect old leaves and make prints out of them. So many ideas are just on our doorstep. It's just a matter of looking for them."

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