Miniature painter · Devon

Miniature paintings, kept in antique lockets

Charlotte Wakefield paints British birds, flowers and trees with hidden words, each small enough to sit inside a Victorian or Edwardian locket. Every design is painted once.

A painted hazel dormouse curled asleep inside an ornate leafy Edwardian locket brooch, resting against a green cloth-bound book
Sleepyhead, hazel dormouse in an Edwardian locket brooch
Painting since
2013
Studio
Cullompton, Devon
Etsy rating
5.0 from 28 reviews
Every piece
One of a kind

Selected work

Each locket is antique or vintage, chosen one at a time, and holds a single painting. All of these have found homes.

A tall painted tree on a pale lilac ground; its twigs form the words of a Bible verse

The name

Trees that speak

Look closely into the branches and the twigs turn into letters.

Some of Charlotte’s trees carry a line of scripture, some a single word such as Loved or Be kind, some a name chosen for the person who will wear it. That is where Treespeake takes its name. She never repeats a design, so each tree keeps its words to itself.

Shown: Let all that you do be done in love, acrylic on canvas, 44.5 × 60 cm. Available now.

Look closer

    Paintings

    Charlotte’s trees on canvas, each with words hidden in its branches. Click a painting to see it larger.

      Smaller than they look

      Photographs make these paintings look large. Most are about the size of a coin: this robin is painted on a disc about 25 mm across.

      Shown enlarged.

      Close-up of a painted robin on a round cream disc

      Commissions

      A painting of your own

      Charlotte paints commissions from your own photographs and words: a favourite bird or garden flower for a locket, or names, dates and verses hidden in the branches of a tree.

      1. Send a message through her Etsy shop with your photographs or words.
      2. Choose a locket or a canvas. For a locket, she will suggest an antique piece to suit the painting.
      3. Receive a one-off, painted for you and never repeated.
      Message Charlotte on Etsy
      A commissioned painting of a black and white moth inside a gold locket on a jet bead chain, lying on an old natural history book
      A commissioned moth, painted from the buyer’s photographs

      Commissioned trees

      Wedding trees, favourite verses and celebrations, each painted to order.

        Kind words

        “When I received it, my heart skipped and eyes watered. It is exquisite.”
        Etsy customer, on a commissioned moth locket
        “No words can describe how gorgeous this tiny piece of art is.”
        M, on a hellebore locket
        “All these items of jewellery are little works of art.”
        Sheila, on the Sleepyhead brooch
        An Edwardian double locket painted with branches spelling Plant dreams, hung beside a wooden acorn charm on an open book

        About

        Charlotte Wakefield

        Charlotte has painted as Treespeake since 2013, from Cullompton in the Culm valley of mid Devon. She finds her lockets one at a time: Edwardian rolled gold, Victorian fobs, lockets ringed with paste stones, Art Deco watch bezels.

        Her subjects are the birds, butterflies and flowers of a Devon garden or hedgerow: robins, wrens, redwings, a small copper, holly, hellebores and forget-me-nots, alongside the word-filled trees that gave Treespeake its name.

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        In the studio

        Work in progress

        Old lockets waiting to be filled, paintings half done, and the trees and hedgerows she paints from.

          Questions

          How big are the paintings?

          Most locket paintings are about the size of a coin. The tree paintings are on canvas: Let all that you do be done in love is 44.5 × 60 cm.

          Will a design ever be painted again?

          No. Every design is painted once, so each locket is one of a kind.

          Where do the lockets come from?

          Charlotte finds each one herself, one at a time: antique and vintage lockets, Victorian fobs, Edwardian rolled gold and Art Deco watch bezels.

          How does delivery work?

          Everything is sold and posted through her Etsy shop, where delivery options and costs are shown on each listing.

          How do I ask about a commission?

          Send Charlotte a message through her Etsy shop with your photographs or the words you would like. For a locket, she will suggest an antique piece to suit.