To mark the newly expanded line that will include prints and greetings cards, we sat down with the very talented Loré Pemberton to understand a little more around her working process and the inspiration behind her delicious artwork!

Tell us a bit about yourself including what led to you doing what you do today.

Greetings from my perch by the wood stove! It’s another cold and snowy day and I’m keeping a hot cup of tea close at hand! My name is Loré Pemberton, and I am an artist living in New England. I grew up in the woods, farm fields, and back roads of northern Florida. When I wasn’t climbing the old oak and magnolia trees with my sisters and brother, I was reading. Reading transported me, and a large part of my youth was spent in those imaginary landscapes. When I had my own children, I wanted to find a way to invite them into the worlds that I love and drawing pictures for them felt like the natural way to do it. Before Instagram, Facebook, or iPhones, I was taking photos and illustrating images. When I eventually began to share some drawings on Instagram, it quickly led to me starting a print shop of my work.  And here we are today!  It’s been such a joy to paint the things I love and share them with you all. 

Your work is immersive -that is the best way that I'd describe them. How do you get the ball rolling on a new design and how do you know when a piece is truly finished? It feels like the longer we look at a piece, the more beautiful things that we discover.

Thank you!! Most of my ideas come while I am doing daily tasks - laundry, dishes, feeding kids - and then I usually won’t have time to get to paint them for several days, weeks, or months, which allows for plenty of time to paint the picture in my head several times over. When I finally do sit down to paint, it usually comes together quickly. However, I never quite feel finished! If time allowed, I would probably continue changing things and adding more. But often I have a new idea that pulls me away or, more often than not, a household task to finish or child to cuddle and chat with - which I’m glad of because if I didn’t, I probably would never finish anything! I do dream of a day though where I have oodles of time (and self-discipline) and I’ll paint very large pictures with an incredible amount of detail! 

Living in such a picturesque location, how does the environment around you influence the colour palette and mood of your artwork? Do you ever look further afield for inspiration?

Absolutely! Vermont is a beautiful place with its shifting seasonal colours, and I feel constantly inspired by the landscape surrounding us, as well as the old farmhouse we are slowly renovating. I would love someday to spend more time in a city or village and see how my imagery would shift. We had the opportunity to travel two years ago, and I was incredibly inspired by Northern Ireland and Welsh landscapes, as well as the stone dwellings I saw. I have an extensive list of places I would love to visit for the sake of painting! But while I am landlocked with too many animals, I often draw inspiration from Scandinavian folk art and have an ever-growing love for 18th century landscape paintings.

As a family, do your own experiences and interactions play a role in shaping the narratives or characters within your artwork, and if so, could you share an example?

Definitely, I feel like the paintings are almost inseparable from our day-to-day life, very much like a visual diary. One painting that particularly comes to mind is “Next to the Moon,” which came to be after a conversation over breakfast with my then four-year-old who told me that every night she and her sister opened the window and flew out to the moon. I asked if I could join them on their next nighttime adventure, and that’s when the imagery for the illustration came to mind. 

What aspects of your creative process do you find most challenging/fulfilling?

I’m absolutely intrigued by light and atmosphere. However, I find it the most difficult thing to capture! One of my hopes this year is to spend more time studying light - how it falls and fills a room! 

We are shortly going to expand our collection of yours from puzzles to include prints and greetings cards. Do you have a personal favourite design?

I’m so excited about this! I’ve been a longtime fan of MamaOwl, and you all have such a wonderful collection. I’d have to say that “The Walled Garden” is my favorite. It reminds me of the ability we all hold to create spaces to invite people into, and I love the birds eye view! And of course, the garden, old stone house, and the prospect of a good book read with the sun on your shoulder. A close second would be “Where the Light Falls” - a painting of a mother resting in the garden during the tender first days of motherhood. 

Thank you so much for carving out some time with us Loré, it's been wonderful to get to know your creative process a little better! Lore's expanded collection of puzzles, prints and greetings cards will be live on Thurs 22nd Feb. Shop the full collection here and follow along her wonderful account here.