When I was 22 years old, I decided to start a part-time business as a professional painter and my goal for that year was to create a painting’s series because I was told by an established artist, and by many art marketing books, it was the way to be represented by an art gallery. So, I did. I spent the whole year of 2010 creating my first body of work and that was the beginning of my creative venture. But how exactly do you grow as a visual artist? Here are 10 tips that have contributed to my growth as a two-dimensional visual artist.
For this blog post, I've decided to highlight 5 professional fine artists, who make a living with their art, in order to inspire emerging artists that this career path, even though it's hard, is possible. These artists kindly shared with me who they are, what they do, and a piece of wisdom they learned along their creative journey.
At the young age of eight, after my teacher, a nun, who was also an amazing artist, scolded me by saying: “If only you could apply the same passion that you use for drawing into studying, you would be a phenomenal student!” A light bulb in my brain lit up. That day I knew exactly that I had to become a professional fine artist, and make that profession my living. So after promising myself that that was my destiny, it was ease to ignore all the nay say-ers telling me that I was going to end up as a starving artist. I knew my truth and I wouldn’t let anyone change my mind.
