Yorkshire artist Toni Thornton, who is best known for her abstract art, signature colour palettes and unique work with texture, partnered with legendry Dragons Den Peter Jones CBE to auction artwork and raise funds for The Peter Jones Foundation at his yearly shooting day event.
Throughout the fundraising day, which took place at The Royal Berkshire Shooting School, Toni treated guests to an up close and personal live paint, alongside an outdoor exhibition of bespoke artworks and catalogues.
Toni said : “We were thrilled to participate in the annual charity shoot for The Peter Jones Foundation. We met some truly wonderful people and raised a fantastic amount for such a great cause.
She continued: “My personal background aligns with the foundations focus and it meant so much to be recognised and praised for our business and the work that we do at Toni Thornton Art. I found the day really inspiring and both myself and the team thoroughly enjoyed the experience.”
The Peter Jones Foundation was created to offer the support and opportunity to young people who don’t know or believe in their potential. Established in 2005 with the vision to encourage, educate and empower young people, the foundation has gone from strength-to-strength and now deliver world-class enterprise education through the Foundation for Enterprise, and support some of the most disadvantaged young people to improve their lives through the Foundation for Children.
Shannon Toms from the Foundation Team said “We reached out to Toni to explore if she could support our charity event by donating a painting, and shortly after receiving more information on her background we knew that the best way to portray her story and showcase her art was by attending our event and live painting! Toni painted in front of our guests, Peter even had a go himself! Toni and her team were such a pleasure to work with from the initial email through to the day and beyond. We were so excited to partner with Toni and felt that she is the exact role model we need to be showcasing to our beneficiaries. Her entrepreneurial spirit and authenticity shines through! We are really excited to explore new collaborations for the future with the team.”
To add even further reason for celebration, Toni Thornton Art is also marking 5 successful years of business. In that time Toni has worked on a number of successful collaborations with the likes of Lydia Millen and the Style Sisters, created a wealth of bespoke pieces for high profile clients such as Perrie Edwards and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, launched countless new collections and branched out into textiles with her abstract cushion cover range which launched last year.
Several years ago, Toni, was working in a high school art department with dreams of going full time as an artist. The long, unsociable hours she would spend working on her art, outside of her 9-5, were what put in the foundations for her success.
Looking back at the early stages of her career, Toni credits a lot of her success to her strong sense of self belief.
She said, "From the beginning I held the belief that I could really make something of my artwork, and my business, and that was what kept me so determined. I dedicated every aspect of my spare time, long evenings, weekends, and my whole heart and soul into the business, and I could do all that because I truly believed it would one day pay off - and it has!”
Looking back on her early career she said, “I wish I would have recognised, from the very beginning, that there is room for everybody within this industry. While it feels incredibly daunting if someone creates a piece of artwork in a similar realm to my signature style, knowing that I have potentially influenced another artist’s creative decisions is now a huge compliment to me.”
