Studio Update Jan‘24

January 15th, 2023 is when I officially left my full time job as a graphic designer to pursue fine art oil painting. The early months were difficult to navigate. I had never been self employed, and despite my years of working for a startup, I didn’t have a good sense of direction.

As spring and summer came, I started attending plein air events. These events were critical in helping me realize where I was at in my art career, and where I wanted to go. I met a lot of incredible artists at each event, it was refreshing to interact with fellow painters. Up until then, I had only ever engaged with other artists when I was going through school.

Fall brought on a lot of traveling. I went up the Oregon and Washington coasts, crabbing, tide pooling, and camping. I didn’t do much painting on this trip, but it was good to get out of Utah and relax for a while. It was a trip where I came back with a lot of reference and inspiration for future paintings.

In the winter I got a job working at a local ski resort where I will work part time through 2024 to get some snowboarding in and to get out of the studio a bit.

Over the course of 2023, I created 31 oil paintings. I didn’t quite reach my goal of 100 paintings for the year, but life doesn’t always go as planned.

What’s Happening in 2024

I have quite a few plans for 2024, increase client outreach and interactions, change my social media approach, and produce more work.

Over the last year, I interacted a lot with other artists, but I didn’t do very well with my potential clients. Being your typical introverted artist, it was difficult for me to interact with strangers. I’m growing and learning how to engage with clientele and build relationships with the people who have fallen in love with my work. I recently finished a painting for a client that has a cabin in Big Cottonwood Canyon. I had the opportunity to go up to their cabin and paint the fall colors for them. It was a dream project and something I’d like to do more of in the future.

As I was reflecting on my previous year, I realized that my social media is geared more towards fellow artists, and casual viewing. For 2024 I’d like to shift my social media strategy to focus more on connecting with collectors and showing the behind the scenes of the studio. I believe that this pivot will encourage my growth as an artist and get me on a successful path.

Every year we’re asked about new year’s resolution and mine is always the same, to paint more. For this year, I set myself a realistic goal of producing 50 gallery ready paintings, complete 5 sketchbooks, and bring back the Studio Update emails. With these goals, I’d like to start pitching myself to galleries so that I can reach a wider audience and build my art career into something more sustainable.

I’ll continue to offer my paintings and drawings on Etsy for the time being. One day I’d like to open a storefront on my website so that I can cut out the middle man and offer better pricing and a more personalized experience for my collectors.

As always, I’m open for commissions, big and small. Shoot me an email, I love to hear your ideas!