British artist Mandie Haywood was born and raised in Derbyshire, England, where she was inspired by the wildlife and nature she observed in the nearby national park the Peak District. During her school years Haywood studied sculpture and photography, but later began a career in portrait painting and worked as a commercial artist and illustrator. Haywood’s paintings depict animals in the style of portraiture, and she has a wide range of subjects as she runs an animal rescue house. Her recent work combines years of perfecting original ideas and careful consideration of composition, color, and lighting, particularly, which she uses to create mood and emotion in her imaginative realist works.

Nothing inspires Haywood more than the work of other incredible artists, and she counts among her greatest inspirations Vermeer, Hopper, Sargent, Klimt, Norman Rockwell, Alfred Munnings, and Scott Gustafson. Haywood works mainly in acrylic, ink, and oil paint because these allow her to rework the painting until she is happy with the final product.