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THIS MONTH: THE HAMPSHIRE ARTIST In our new series, we celebrate home-grown entrepreneurs who have turned their hobby into a thriving business – drawing inspiration and support from the rural area in which they live

Championing home-grown skills, we meet people making the most of their hobby. This month: the artist

the early months of a new year are one of artist Vicki Elder’s favourite times in her shop. “December is so busy that I barely have time to breathe,” she says. “For me, the calm that follows is always a relief. The festive rush has finished and I can open up my paint palette again.”

Vicki owns The Fox in the Forest – a little store selling her work and that of other local artists and crafters – in the pretty market town of Ringwood on the edge of the New Forest. When she’s not serving customers, she can be found quietly working away behind the till, creating delicate watercolours of the wildlife she encounters when out walking in nearby woodland. “Most customers don’t even notice I’m painting,” she says. “I’m quite discreet; I have my watercolour paint palette and some brushes tucked under the cash register, and I work on my lap.”

Vicki opened The Fox in the Forest just over four years ago, following a previous career in retail that she had fallen into rather than planned. “Growing up, I always painted and wasn’t really good at anything else, so I presumed I would be an artist,” she says. She completed a foundation course at Lincoln College of Art, and was all set to go to Falmouth University when her father sadly passed away. “I didn’t paint for quite a while after Dad’s death,” she explains. “I felt I needed to stay at home to help my mum.” A series of jobs took her from a pasty shop in Cornwall through to manager of an upmarket clothing store in Ringwood, Hampshire, ten years ago, but all the while she was busy painting and crafting in her spare time. Then, in early 2011, after a particularly stressful day at work, she decided it was time to make a change and pursue her dream: “I came home and told my husband that I wanted to start my own business. I’d even thought of the name: The Fox in the Forest. It was after a painting I was doing at the time, but I hadn’t actually decided what the business would be.”

For a few months, Vicki continued with her job and began creating a stockpile of her paintings in the evenings and at

The Fox in the Forest, has a felt mouse above the door: “It’s only ever children who notice it,” she says. “They look around much more than adults”; Vicki with some of her paintings; her book Shop Mouse is sold to raise money for charity