January 27, 2025
Good morning everyone, and happy Monday! It’s been a minute since I’ve written Studio Notes. I am so excited to be back. These Notes are a bit different, as I focus more on reflections from this past year and intentions and goals for next year!
We’ll start off with some of my biggest takeaways regarding my creative practice and business from 2024 (including my favorite 2 paintings!!). Then, I’ll jump right into my goals for 2025, both creative and business related. Finally, I’ll talk a bit about life between studios—in case you didn’t know, I just moved recently! Not very far away, luckily, but I am currently still setting up my new studio. I’ll talk about what my dream studio looks like, and what I’m doing to stay creative while I don’t have a dedicated space to work in.
As always, settle in, grab a warm beverage, and take this moment to savor this beautiful, chilly Monday morning, or whenever you’re reading this. And we’ll just jump right in.
2024 was the first year I worked on my art and developing it into a business full-time. And I am so proud of what I accomplished.
I sold my first prints and cards on my website, opening on April 1st of 2024. While I closed my online shop in July, and haven’t opened it since, I am working on the next stage and can’t wait to see what that brings. And while the traffic on my online shop was a bit slow, the sales I made enabled me to work towards my next big endeavor: art markets.
I showed my work at three art markets in October through December, and the sales from those made up over half of my income for my business in 2024. Not only that, but seeing people in person, and watching them interact and connect with my art, was extremely fulfilling. Moving forward, I would love to prioritize art markets and in-person interactions with my audience.
What could I have done better? My biggest struggle was consistency on social media. I have come to the realization that I just don’t like Instagram. I’m not a big fan of it for my personal life, and growing an audience on that platform as an artist is exhausting and not fun. Moving forward, I will use it as a kind of easily-accessible portfolio, to help people in-person connect and remember who I am. But I really want to push my email lists and Studio Notes into priority with reaching my audience.
I am so proud of all the paintings I have finished this year. I really found my flow and creative freedom, experimenting and delving into details and landscapes. Looking back, I tried to find my favorite painting from 2024. Not only for the final outcome, but for the whole process and what it meant to me. I could not narrow it down to one, however. So these are my two favorites.
This Land’s Heartbreak. This painting is so close to my heart. It is inspired by Tracy Arm Fjord in Southeast Alaska, and more specifically a poem I wrote inspired by this fjord a couple years ago. I started out by writing the poem on the canvas, and painting thin layers of acrylics over it, dripping and glazing, transparency slowly building up, until I switched to oils and started on the details. Every time I worked on this painting, I was in the flow state. This is what I want my paintings to feel like: authentically me with a messy, beautiful creative process, and I love how it makes me feel.
In the Flow. In case you couldn’t tell, a main focus for me last year was to find the flow state, to go with the flow, to be in the flow. Flow was my word of the year. And this title, In the Flow, is the best way to describe this painting. I used a grainy, zoomed-in reference photo I took years ago in Ocean Shores, and I put it through my creative process, and in the end I have this painting I am absolutely in love with. If I had to show what creativity looks and feels like to me, it would be this painting. I only used acrylics, soft body, and I just had a blast layering and layering and adding details through yet more layers. I am so proud of this painting, not only the outcome of the finished piece, but my whole mindset and creative process throughout creating it.
I’ve sold prints of these two at my in-person markets, but they will definitely be included in my next online shop drop (tentatively March 1st!).
My main word/phrase for this year, in both my life and my creative work, is “slow down”. I want to slow down, embrace the season I am in, live in the moment. Slow down and work on the details, take time and make sure I’m taking a creative work as far as I can. Whatever I’m doing, whether it be painting, writing emails, or prepping inventory, I want to be 100% focused on what is in front of me. I also, at the same time, want to embrace imperfections, knowing that that is what makes an artwork (and life) compelling and meaningful.
I want to build a daily creative practice. To do so, I acquired the Hobonichi Techo, a6 size. This journal includes daily pages, and so far I have been consistent with filling a page each day. It can be anything, from a quick landscape sketch, to a doodle, to scribbling down colors. Whatever I am feeling in that moment. I have been having so much fun with this so far, and cannot wait to see the long-term impacts this habit has on my work.
Another goal I have is to schedule and embrace different seasons in my life. For example, I just moved. So right now, the season that I’m in is unpacking and settling in, designing my spaces, and cultivating routines. My large-scale paintings have been put on hold, and that is what is perfect for me right now. However, once I set up my new studio space and the time is right, I will start a new season of working large-scale again. And in the meantime, I have my daily creative practice to tide me over. And then, when market season starts ramping up in the spring and summer, I will switch to a more business-focused season. I’m pulling these concepts from one of my favorite books I read last year, titled Slow Productivity. I cannot recommend it enough.
On the business end of my goals, I focus a bit more on numbers. Now, these are still more of a direction to work toward. The actual number itself does not matter as much, as long as I am progressing in the right direction.
So, what are these numbers? I want to participate in 6 in-person art markets throughout this year. Starting (hopefully) in May, going throughout December. I will mainly focus on Spokane markets, but I also don’t want to limit myself to only local markets, so who knows?
I want to launch 4 online shop drops, coinciding with the seasons. This is a bit ambitious, but I am really excited to put focus and energy into this side of my business again. I love printing and packing orders, and can’t wait to do so again.
Start selling my art in at least one physical store. This was one of my goals last year, and while I reached out to a few, none panned out in the end. I am going to try again this year, and if I get my art into at least one store that will be a win for me.
A big goal of mine that is scary and daunting this year is to start scaling my products. This means offering larger prints, framed prints, and also framing my originals I’m showing at art markets. These are all scary in that they are expensive, and definitely a financial risk that might not pay off. However, if I want my art to be taken seriously and professionally as my business grows, I need to start prioritizing these objectives.
And I think that’s about it in terms of my 2025 creative goals! I am so thrilled to see what this next year holds in store for me, my art, and Colt Island Works.
As I mentioned before, I moved! Not very far away, but this means I have a new studio space. My new studio is in a space that is only mine, unlike my last one, and I cannot wait to cultivate the environment best suited to my creative practice.
My dream studio has bright, consistent lighting. Unfortunately, as this space used to be a small garage, there are no windows. I do have a garage door that opens up, which will be wonderful in the warmer months. For now, I want to set up lighting that is perfect, consistent, and feels as close to daylight as possible. Lighting is my highest priority. I also have large storage cabinets for storing my art supplies. My everyday art supplies will be out on a cart, which I can move wherever I need. My “easel” is my wall, with so much space for multiple paintings at once. Along with my actual easel, ready for smaller canvas boards and such. I will also have a large worktable in the corner, with all my sketchbook and paper media laid out, ready to use. I want to practice more in sketchbooks, striving for a balance between large-scale and small-scale works. Above my work table, I will have a collage of art cards and prints from my favorite artists, set up to inspire and motivate me.
I think I also want a cozy corner, set up with a chair and reading lamp, so I can take breaks. In this corner I will have a stack of my favorite inspirational art books, as well as my studio journal. I will also have a mini-fridge, loaded with some clean snacks that don’t make a mess, sparkling water, maybe some juice. Next to a tea kettle and my favorite teas, of course.
So, creating this space this will be my journey for the next few weeks. I want to take my time, slow down, and make sure it is a space I love and feel inspired to create in. For now, I am enjoying the break from painting, but I know that when it is time to start again I will be so ready.
If you’ve made it all the way to the end, that’s great! Thank you so much for reading! I am so excited to jump right into this new year and see where it takes me and my creative business. I have a implemented a much more reliable system for these Studio Notes, so (hopefully) they will be much more consistent moving forward.
As always, let me know any and all of your thoughts, I love chatting all things creative! Thank you so much for reading these Studio Notes. I hope you have a slow, creative, wonderful week ahead of you. Remember to stay rooted in the present moment, slow down, and savor the little things in your days. That’s all for now.
-Anna
