Sally Atkins is a Cornish based artist, illustrator, maker, and accidental historian working on personal projects inspired by her life in beautiful Cornwall, the Cornish scenery and the rich history of this amazing county. She is fascinated by architecture and social history, often mixing the two in her colourful creations.
In previous years she had been retracing her Cornish ancestors, visiting the places they lived, worked and were buried. It was an emotional journey, standing in a church where her ancestors stood 200 years previously, looking at a plaque dated 1770 and knowing they have stood in front of it too.
In 2021 she completed an MA in Illustration through Falmouth University, fulfilling a lifetime dream of attaining a degree in art. It was here in her final project that she mixed historical research and illustration together.
In 2023 she began working on a project based on a 1926 Old Cornwall Society pamphlet entitled The Cornish Year. The project celebrated a slice of Cornish history every day with illustrations of an event, a person, an interesting story for each day of the year. The project ended up with over 740 separate illustrations along with a synopsis of each of the stories involved.
