What has happened since 2020? That was the year the world stopped, and for me writing blog posts stopped entirely.

My last post on this blog was back in 2020, the year I took myself from being a managed artists to an independent one. Following almost a decade of blogging my art journey, after initially setting up this page as part of a university project, I then an almost 3 year hiatus from writing.

Why did I stop and what’s been happening since??

One reason I stopped writing blog posts was because of taking on the management side of my artwork and how it meant that I immediately wore every hat that the business entailed. I went from working with a large team, to deciding to work alone! I wasn’t just the painter and artist anymore, I was the admin, the technician, the graphic designer, the packer and shipper.

The other reasons is the slow, painful death of blogging! It pained me to watch the social media landscape turn away from blogging, (and pained me even more to see it then turn into video format!) and so with my plate already overloaded, blogging took the hit and was abolished from my work diary.

So, if you haven’t been in the loop, if the social media algorithms have denied you of your burning and insatiable desire to know all of what the last 3 years held for me and my artwork (*sarcasm*) then you have found yourself in the right place.

My last blog post in January 2020 documented a release of some new work and very different work to what I had done before. It was basically the type of work I had wanted to do for years, but I had already established myself as a wildlife artist only. I wanted to explore all sides of nature, all wildlife, bountiful flowers and ripe fruits. I loved the idea of this botanical aspect, as well as wanting to create weird and abstract artworks that are strange and intriguing to look at or contemplate. I decided at this point to just go for it and incorporate all of these ideas regardless of how in keeping they were of my previous artworks! This is a scary idea when you have established yourself in your market and career, and wasn’t sure exactly how this would land.

But it landed! So panic over, I continued the rest of the weirdness of 2020 with another abstract collection at the end of the year.

Fast forward to the closing end of 2022, and a lot has changed, entering 2023 with an entirely different life and business.

My partner Danny has joined me full time to help me run everything, opening up more time to paint and taking some of those hats that I was talking about wearing. He handles the difficult bits while I get to run away with the creative bits, so work has become a lot more streamlined, our processes faster and more efficient, and ultimately, everything easier!

We have also invested in a (absolutely gigantic) Giclee printer in order to take autonomy over the printing process for my limited edition prints and get them shipped out faster than was possibly when buying from a printing service.

Also, there is a baby on the way!

So there is a lot of exciting things opening up in 2023, with an art practice and business that has evolved dramatically not only during this writing hiatus, but over the decade I have been working as a professional full time artist. Mostly though, I don’t exactly care that blogging has died an internet death… I have so much to write about in regards to my work and all art topics that could help aspiring artists, I would like to keep this channel open for anyone who wants to find it!

Keep an eye out here for some chats about my art, and the practice and journey of creating art!

Katy x