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How to motivate yourself to create
This morning I ended up showing to my dad the art of other students I had been in the same art classes. Particularly I really like the recent series of Jarrod Bai who has done some nocturne paintings in oil. Then I also told him about the pencil work of Leo whose work I also…
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Don’t buy my work
With the holiday season coming, I am tempted to come up with flashy ads about discounts, holiday themed works and to take advantage of the surge in needing to buy something to prove you love someone. Those e-newsletters have flooded my inbox. The name of my art business is however derived from a Latin term…
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Dealing with an artist’s identity crisis
I have many hats I wear, each of which could be at times adopted to be all-encompassing of who I really am. Some of you might know I work in the legal industry. That is even hard for me to write on my own blog, dedicated to my craft as an artist. It’s almost like…
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A jolt of inspiration
I just had a moment waking up at midnight and after my brain had processed a new idea for my next painting in my Reminders for Everyday Living series. It’s like riding a wave. You wake up, have a burning itch to create. If you don’t act quickly enough, that sheer pull to the blank…
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The Fun of Reactions to My Paintings
The 2025 Queen West Art Crawl was a massive success! While I didn’t see as many old friends this year, I got to meet a lot of people and shared the stories behind my art. I always find it fascinating to see what sold well. What did people like? On my first day, it seemed…
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Ergonomics of Doing Art
While doing the arduous task of cutting around 60 matboards for my limited edition prints and original works, I thought about little tweaks to make it slightly less taxing on the body. Putting items at waist height so I wouldn’t be bending over, or being mindful of where I was putting my clamps every time…
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Setting up a Small Art Business
Last weekend, I discovered that I was unable to use the online print functions at where I would usually do my limited edition prints. It meant a bit of panicking and then finding a new place for printing. Fortunately, I got my prints I intended to make, and in fact at a lower cost, so…
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The value of talking about your art
When I explained to someone how I was being tough on myself for not creating more art, I found that a key to getting back was talking about my previous ones to other people live. I got to share with her some of my paintings and got excited about what I made in the past.…
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Tips for your First Commission
After being approached a number of times on whether I would do commissions, on this last time, I decided to take the dive and it turned out to be a great experience. There were a few elements that I realized and would recommend going forward to other artists: All in all, I would consider doing…
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Commissioned art and the saleability of art
In the past, I’ve turned down commissioned work requests. It struck me as that I wanted to make art with my own messaging, and commissions would get in the way of that. But lately, I’ve started working on a commissioned piece. Given that this subject matter was interesting and it was a friend of mine,…
