Dee has drawn since being very young and often had dreams of being either an author, an illustrator or an artist. As she grew life took over, eventually taking over her dreams, the reality of working, paying bills and raising a family moved to the forefront of life. Dee hung up her pencils and paints along with her artistic dreams and decided she would draw again one day once she'd done building a stable home and life.  

When Dee did draw, it was always drawn cartoon characters that she would attempt in the past and felt realism wouldn't be something she could manage, and she never felt brave enough to try.  I won't go into reasons here, but after a very long and challenging illness Dee was left disabled, she was no longer able to go to work and just about every hobby she loved to do was now out of reach either because she was unable due to the physical requirements or due to cost also. Dee sat for a number of years in her home not sure what to do anymore and what life held for her and the future, until one day after watching a quick film on someone drawing, she decided that was the time to dig out her pencils and paints and start enjoying art once again.  She didn't want to draw cartoon characters this time though and wanted to do something that was more challenging and rewarding, and that's when Dee decided to start drawing horses and other animals. 

After approximately a year of drawing, starting with just pencil and moving through different mediums to find what she felt worked best for her, Dee settled on soft pastels and pastel pencils as her favourite medium. She had also gone from drawing just simple outline drawings and moved on too much more detailed drawings, this is when she started getting requests from friends and family to draw a family pet or a favourite animal of theirs and wanting to look professional so people would have confidence in her work and DeeDackelsaArt was born. She chose this name using her name, her favourite breed of dog.  

Once up and running, Dee did a number of commissions for people either via request directly to her or through word of mouth and she loved her time doing these. However, drawing commissions takes up days and weeks of time along with the cost if materials that are used to create the portraits. Dee felt a huge amount of pressure when creating her commissions and after drawing a piece for a friend which was delayed due to health problems Dee decided to step away from her art table for a few weeks and see how she felt. A few weeks went on to last approximately a year and, in that time, Dee did a lot of reflecting of herself and her artwork and decided one day she wanted to draw a frog!  

That was the move forward Dee needed and from then on, she drew consistently drew amphibians of different sizes, shapes and species and realised she hadn't had so much fun drawing in years!  

After months of drawing frogs and fish etc. Dee decided it was time for a total face-lift of DeeDackelsArt. She removed her website first to ensure no more commission requests and started the task of thinking of a new name which described her art more accurately. She hadn't given up on drawing horses and other animals so didn't just want to name it after one species, her love of horses was so important to her she wanted to find a way to incorporate both furry and slimy, and after some thinking the idea of Hooves and Frogs came to mind. They not only have a link to each other, the hoof having a center area called the frog, but also a link to each of her favourite animal to draw. She put this name to one side and made sure there was nothing else she liked, but something about this name really clicked with Dee so that was what she decided on, so Hooves and Frogs was born. 

Dee first started on building her new website, she wanted to share not only her drawings but also her model building and diorama building which she has also grown a great passion for. Dee will put a page on her website to explain more about the diorama, model building and trains that she's building and will share her progress with what she is building at the time.  Since having her own art room built outside, which Dee calls The Paint Room, Dee has made quite a few developments with her art and though she has a number of canvases waiting to be drawn, Dee has started using canvases to create acrylic Portraits on. Instead of focusing on just animals, she is now creating beautiful nude portraits of different people women and men in different flows of movement, whether it be pole dancing, burlesque dancing, even yoga and this is definitely an area of art that Dee has grown to love creating very quickly.  

All Dee's portraits are lovingly hand drawn using reference photographs from people who have given her permission to use them, using a reference photograph website or Dee will look at many photographs of different people posing and create her own piece of art taking different elements from a number of the photographs. 

As much as Dee loves to draw and paint and paint, she was never quite satisfied with her results, she always felt she could do better. That was until she found Sculpting.  Dee's biggest love and her newest love is sculpting. 

She has made approx. 10 air dry clay sculptures now and people love them, her dream is to get her own kiln so she can fire her sculptures and when share them with you to sell. 

Dee has now started using clay that needs to go into a kiln, her hope is to raise enough money to be able to get a secondhand kiln, sooner rather than later, then these sculptures will be dry and ready to go in to be fired. 

Dee's other art will continue but at the moment her sculpting is her priority and she hopes with all heart she will be successful and with it and become a professional sculptor. 

Dee's Sculptures and portraits make wonderful gifts and special keepsakes to loved ones and friends, something they can cherish themselves or give as a gift that special someone. 

If you would like a commissioned sculpture, a memorial sculpture or a portrait, feel free to ask Dee any questions that you might have, please don't hesitate. You can either message Dee through Facebook messenger, there is a button on her Facebook page, or you can send an email via the email address on the Contacts page. You can also text message via her Business WhatsApp number on the contacts page, leaving your details so someone is able to contact you. 

We're always happy to help you with your enquiries