About Us

My name is Jennifer Kyte, and the chap pictured here is Simon.

Simon and I both studied BA Photography at The Arts Institute at Bournemouth (but we met at school in North Dorset not far from Frome). Simon learned to make frames at art school, while I focussed on printing. We both harboured interests outside of visual art too: mine was writing, Simon’s was nature. After we graduated, Simon went off to Sparsholt Agricultural College to study for a Foundation Degree in Wildlife Conservation and Management. I moved to Cambridge to work on a project for Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University, digitising their collection of polar photography.

When we both moved back to Dorset, Simon took on various wildlife projects, including planting a new mixed woodland, creating a forest garden, planting an orchard, establishing a 2 mile stretch of native hedgerow, and managing various gardens for wildlife. In his spare time he set up a little framing workshop, initially just to frame his mum’s artwork, but then her friends, and soon enough he’d expanded into a larger workshop to cater to local artists, and set up a gallery. It didn’t take long before his skill became so well-known that he decided to focus full-time on framing. In the meantime I was working as a freelance graphic designer, specialising in designing for artists and writers, as well as helping Simon to run the gallery.

We happened to coincide with the Frome Independent Market one summer Sunday in 2014 while we were dropping frames off to a Frome-based client. We loved the creative vibe of the town, so decided to move across the border from Dorset to the county we were both born in, Somerset. We set up Mount Art Services with the aim to offer a service to artists that combined our skills. Together we spent seven years framing, printing and designing for local and national galleries, artists, writers, and collectors.

After a rough couple of years following Brexit and Covid, we closed-up shop in 2022. Tara & Michael Greenwold invited us to help them set-up an online wall-art gallery specialising in hand-framed reproduction prints sourced from archives and private collections. So we joined forces to help them form what became Mount Collective. After launching, Simon and I parted from Mount Collective to take a break and find a new direction for ourselves. Simon stopped framing to refocus on his love for nature. I decided to freshen our brand and continue the art reproduction and design under the name Peradam. And that’s where we are now.

Find the new website here: Peradam.co.uk

I’m based at the Silk Mill in Frome, surrounded by other artists and creatives.