A Year in the Studio: 2025

Louise Hancox
Dec 16, 2025
2 min read

2025 has been a year of creating in many directions at once.

Finished pieces sitting alongside experiments, familiar ground beside brand-new territory.

Some work arrived with beautiful flow, some asked a lot of questions, and some simply taught me how to keep going.

This is a look back at what emerged in the studio over the year — the pieces that held their ground and the ones that quietly shifted it.

Thirteen Finished Artworks

I'm a slow creator and I make no apology for that. I love to immerse myself in a piece. Each artwork is complete when I look at it and can see nothing more is needed.

These three pieces were a continuation of my "Keystone" series celebrating the unsung wildlife heroes that hold together fragile ecosystems.

And my "LittleBig Cat" series saw two new additions.

Every postcard-sized piece in this series supports wildlife conservation.

No year would be complete without including some beautiful pet portraits. I had the honour of creating two beautiful double portraits this year. Boris and Bella (top) and Schnoodle and Woody (bottom):

Not everything fits neatly into a series. Some pieces simply call to be made — you’ll find the rest of my 2025 portfolio here:

Sculpture

And for the first time, a brief but wonderful foray into 3 dimensions... there will be more!

Swapping a pencil for a paintbrush

Late last year I began learning to paint in oils. I've been continuing to dedicate little pockets of time here and there this year.

These still lifes are teaching me all about the magic of painting and I'm loving letting things be a bit messy as I create these little tonal pieces.

And snatching creative moments where I can...

I'd love all days to be creative days but that's simply not possible... or so I thought!

My early morning sketches have allowed me to bring creativity into each day without needing a big chunk of time. Here are just some of the sketches I've created:

Life in the Studio

Between mixing oils, performing minor elephant sculpture surgery, and occasionally stopping long enough to notice a finished piece, this is what a year in the studio looks like for me!