Northampton mother’s new abstract art business ‘inundated’ with orders and already has month-long waiting list

A Northampton mother’s new abstract art business is already “inundated” with orders and has a month-long waiting list.

28-year-old Lucia Tonna first launched ‘The Modern Art Mama’ in January – after she posted an abstract art piece she was making for herself and people requested she began selling them.

Lucia said: “I knew what I wanted for my living room but it was going to cost me around £1,000 to buy it. How is this justifiable for anyone?”

After buying the resources and posting about the process on her personal Instagram page, people she knew were really impressed and wanted Lucia to open up for commissions.

“I set up a separate account and everyone loved what I was doing,” said Lucia, who first began posting about her art at the end of November last year.

“I didn’t expect the crazy response and I’ve been so inundated with other people’s orders that I’ve not finished the piece for my living room yet.”

Lucia, who lives with her partner and two-year-old son Archer in Wootton, wants people to be able to buy art without the “extortionate prices” and “prides herself on keeping costs minimal”.

She said: “For normal people, it is not a priority to spend so much on art.”

Lucia says she has always been artistic and sees what she does now as a “therapeutic hobby after running around after a wild toddler all day”.

For now, it is only those in Northampton that are able to purchase from The Modern Art Mama as Lucia is offering home delivery and collection only.

However, over the next month, her next goal is to start offering shipping to people all over the UK and internationally – as she has already had order requests from overseas.

After setting up her page, Lucia received orders straight away and people were asking to go on her waiting list before she had even set one up.

The business owner said: “I couldn’t believe it. I had to close my February commissions on the third of the month. It’s such a surreal feeling.”

Alongside being a mother and setting up her new business venture, Lucia works at Nationwide and is training to be a mortgage advisor – but would love to do art full-time in the future.

Lucia said: “Once I’ve put Archer to bed at 7pm, I’ll be working on my next art piece by 7.10pm. I’ve always taken so much pride in making things look nice and artistic.”

She admits having two jobs and a toddler sounds stressful when you say it out loud, but “art is like her therapy”.

Lucia currently works from her kitchen and although it is a decent size space, it is soon taken up when working on eight commissions each month.

No matter how successful the business becomes, it will always remain as just Lucia working for The Modern Art Mama.

Her next step is to enable shipping across the UK and globally, set up a website, and eventually have her own art space away from her home.

You can check out The Modern Art Mama on Instagram here.