The Salsa Creative Studio

Winner of the SME Greater London Awards - Best Graphic Design & Illustration Studio 2018

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The studio is run by Salma Price-Nell, a professionally trained Illustrator, Graphic Designer and Photographer. Her work has been featured in many publications from books to billboards.

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Now favouring traditional media, Salma paints with professional fine pigment, UV and water resistant inks on archival cotton paper. Her paintings and illustrations favour organic shapes and pack in incredible amounts of detail. "I spend a lot of my time thinking about the interconnected nature of the universe and I aspire to one day contribute to the expansion of human consciousness by creating work that not only creates an opportunity for stillness and reflection but also work that provokes deep thought."

About The Shop

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In The Salsa Creative Studio Shop is an independent space where Salma can make her work available to the public. Here you will find a collection of prints and original artwork (when available).

Most of the original artworks are created using a range of inks, dipping pens and brushes. 

All prints and original pieces are acid-free, lightfast and archival, meaning they will not discolour or fade for many years (if kept in good conditions such as out of direct sunlight and behind glass).

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All signed prints and original artwork are made and posted by the artist from her UK studio using the greatest attention to detail.

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We're always happy to help so if you have any questions simply email info@thesalsacreative.com or use the chat box to the bottom right of the screen and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Salma grew up in Cape Town, South Africa in a family of creative people with different talents. They would often make things from scratch and be resourceful with what they had. Growing up surrounded by creativity, she started drawing at the age of 3 and would draw on doors and walls and under tables.

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During high school (where she'd much rather be doodling than listening in class), she would spend her afternoons in the South African National Gallery while waiting for her sister to finish her work day. Here she would eventually become an intern at the National Gallery after finishing her Art and Design studies. She learnt a lot about the Fine Art and Contemporary Art worlds here and after deciding this wasn't the space for her she further studied Print and Interactive Media design courses and went on to be a Graphic designer.

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In 2015 she emigrated to the United Kingdom. She had a lot more time on her hands (no longer having a social life) so she found her way back to drawing. "I always thought I could never make a living as an artist so I never pursued it as a career, especially after learning the Contemporary Art world's politics. It's a very closed circle and is very ego driven. I'm not about that. I believe art is everyone's right to enjoy and express, it shouldn't be exclusive or elitist. It should be about the work."

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She started becoming more diligent in her drawing practice after moving to London. She practiced a lot of observational drawing and worked day and night on improving her skills. "I started sharing some of my drawings on Instagram and realised that this was a space that I could 'exhibit' my work and find other creatives to inspire me and look up to. Artists who make art purely driven by their innate need to create, not motivated solely by money, ego or status."

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While working a part time job in e-commerce and freelancing as a designer, she is slowly building her independent art career. Thousands of hours of drawing went in to finding who she is as an artist. With her combined skills she built an e-commerce website and started a shop and invested in a printer and supplies. Orders would slowly trickle in. In the beginning she would get one a month if she were lucky, but she stayed diligent and kept posting her work on Instagram. In May 2022 some of her reels went viral on Instagram and she went from under 1000 followers to over 60k+ in just over a month and continues to grow. She does everything herself, from her social media, designing and managing her website and shop, printing, beautifully wrapping and packaging orders, customer service and of course, creating the artwork.

When ordering a signed print you are ordering straight from the artist from start to finish. "I started off using drop-shipping services but I really wanted to provide a personal experience as part of my offering. When someone purchases a signed print or art from me, I want to be able to make it, check that it's perfect and lovingly wrap and package it myself so that they can feel that it was made by a person who loves it. Packaging every order feels like sending a gift to a friend. I think that feeling real connections is important. I know when I purchase something that seeing the effort that went into it makes me enjoy and appreciate that thing so much more."

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"I am continuously learning and developing in every way I can and I am endlessly grateful for the people who follow my work and support what I do. You make it possible for me to be able to create this work and to develop as an artist."

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For up to the latest news and artwork updates you can follow @thesalsacreative on Instagram. For announcements, shop updates and exclusive content sign up to the newsletter here.