Award-winning artist and illustrator Eleanor Tomlinson has announced her latest charity collaboration with the Sailors’ Children’s Society.
The East Yorkshire-based artist has teamed up with the charity to create a new Christmas card to help raise funds to support the children of seafarers around the UK.
The exclusive 2024 card design, titled Deck the Hulls, is now available to order on Eleanor’s website, eleanortomlinsonart.co.uk, individually and as sets of 6 A5 cards and envelopes.
Eleanor founded her own art and illustration business in 2011 when she was just 13, after creating a Christmas card for another local charity.
She developed her business while at school and university and over the next 10 years built a large portfolio of customers, private and commercial, who regularly commission original artworks (often with a Yorkshire twist).
At the same time Eleanor has developed her pieces into an extensive range of greetings cards, prints and homewares that feature her illustrations, and they are all printed and produced in the UK.
Eleanor has worked with Joules, Harper Collins, Ravensburger and Lottie Shaws and is a sought-after designer of illustrated menus for a range of prominent local restaurants.
In June 2022, Eleanor achieved worldwide fame when she produced a small illustration of Paddington Bear for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee which went viral around the world overnight and brought her a worldwide audience for her talent.
Eleanor’s business snowballed overnight, and she was inundated with orders for copies of this illustration and her portfolio of other work. She became a media sensation, appearing on TV and radio shows around the country and was featured in many local and national publications.
Since then, Eleanor’s business has continued to grow and she is regularly asked to speak at events around the country.
It was at one of these events, a breakfast meeting for local businesswomen held at Hull Golf Club, that she first met Natasha Barley, CEO of the Sailors’ Children’s Society.
After a brief conversation, they realised they had more in common than first thought as Eleanor’s grandmother, Glenda, and great-aunt Marlene had been helped by the society in the 1950s when their father died after in an accident at sea.
The two sisters and their mother struggled throughout their childhood and depended heavily on the charity for many basics such as shoes, coats and school uniform.
Natasha suggested creating a bespoke illustration for a fundraising Christmas card and Eleanor said she would be delighted to be involved.
Their hope is that many local businesses who have links to the maritime industry within the city of Kingston upon Hull and around the UK will use this card as their Christmas card to send to clients in 2024.
Volume orders can be placed with the Sailors’ Children’s Society. For orders over 25 cards, email natasha.barley@sailorschildren.org.uk.
The money raised will be used by the charity to further support its work helping the children of seafarers. The charity was founded in 1821, and since then it has helped more than 48,000 children.
For further information about the charity, visit sailorschildren.org.uk.
