It wasn't always this
For a long time, painting was the thing I did after everything else was done. Weekends. Evenings when I had energy left. It was my escape, my quiet time, the thing that made me feel like myself — but I never called it a career. I definitely didn't call myself an artist.
I painted botanicals back then. Careful, detailed, beautiful. People loved them. I loved making them. But there was this quiet pull toward something else — something looser, braver, more abstract. I just didn't know if I was allowed to go there.
The shift
I can't pinpoint the exact moment it changed. It was gradual. I started experimenting with abstraction — just for me, not for anyone else. The first few pieces felt messy and uncertain. But they also felt alive in a way the botanicals didn't anymore.
Then I painted something that stopped me. I stood back from the canvas and thought: this is it. This is what I've been trying to say. It was coastal, abstract, warm — everything I felt but couldn't articulate with careful petals and leaves.
Calling yourself an artist is harder than it sounds
The painting part came naturally. The identity part? That was harder. There's a weird gap between doing something and being the person who does it. Saying "I'm an artist" out loud felt strange for a long time. Like I needed permission from somewhere.
I realised no one gives you that permission. You give it to yourself. You give it to yourself by showing up at the easel. By putting your work out there. By taking it seriously enough to build something around it.
Where I am now
Today, I see a real future in this. Not just a hobby that brings me joy (though it still does that), but something I'm building intentionally. A body of work. A collector base. A brand that feels like me.
I've sold original paintings. I've been named a finalist in two art prizes. I have a studio and a website and people who want to buy what I make. None of that happened overnight, and I'm nowhere near finished.
But I can say it now without hesitating: I'm an artist. And I'm just getting started.