We were lucky to catch up with Erin Spencer recently and have shared our conversation below.
Erin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I have always shown an interest in drawing and creating. I did not, however, pursue art as a career from the beginning. In fact, I graduated from college with a History degree and an unrelated job working at a greenhouse and garden nursery. My interests were all over the place! But I happily stumbled on a friend’s paintings as she held an open house to launch her art career. I left her home that day, turned to my husband, and said, “That’s what I want to do.” I went out the next day and gathered oil painting supplies. I had never painted with oils before, but I knew that was what I wanted to do. The textures and quality of oil paint were as important to me as the subject matter or rendering of elements in the painting. So I embarked on a long journey of teaching myself to paint. I read a lot of books about painting, I looked at artists whose work I admired, I spent hours at my easel. My early work was very childish and literal. I tried everything from stereotypical New England scenes to abstract seascapes to whimsical clouds. Most of the work was very bad, but some of it had a hint of promise. At the time I was still developing that early vision of what my work would be, and I thought I was doing a great job most of the time. Ignorance is bliss! As I started to see my work in the context of a greater body of contemporary artists, I entered the artist cycle of joy, plateau, self-reflection, discouragement, learning, waiting, succeeding, and back to joy. But those times of discouragement motivated me to learn more and keep practicing.
I tend to do things the hard way, preferring to learn in my own way. If I had taken the time or parted with the money to take some workshops there are some artists I would have loved to study with. But, truth be told, I never took a workshop or studied closely with any other artists. I have made peace with that now, and would perhaps study with someone in the future, but I’m happy with the course my art journey has taken. The personal lessons I learned have brought me to where I am in my work today. I have looked extensively at art in person, whether at museums or galleries, and that has been a wonderful teacher for me.
But the greatest method I have found for learning to paint is to simply put in the time. Time outside, looking closely at my subject matter, time learning to see differently. To see like an artist is different than to see as an observer. We can only paint what we can see, and that vision develops over time. My best teacher has been to paint from life, from observation. Responding to the landscape around me, seeing all the varied color and value and feeling of a place is certainly a better teacher than anything else I’ve found.
As a mother of three children, I’ve developed my career as an artist under very busy circumstances. I choose to stay home with them, so I work out of my home studio. Their childhood is entwined with my art. It is just a part of the fabric of our lives. There are times when my house suffers. There are times when my art suffers. But we can’t do everything all the time, so our choices need to reflect our priorities. I give my time to many different things, so I am sure my art has not received the same attention as some other artists. But I don’t regret that. If anything, I’m sure it helps my work and gives me deeper focus. I have become quite a fast painter, perhaps as much from necessity as from my personality. I am grateful for the chance to be an artist and to be a mother. So, while my choice has made it more difficult to devote unhindered time to my work, it has also made me appreciate it all the more.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I began as an oil painter in 2007. As a self taught painter I had no context for where my art would fit into the art world. I knew I wanted to paint landscapes, and I started painting from photographs from my time living in The Netherlands in my early 20s. I still have some of those first paintings of tulip fields and grassy dunes. I was encouraged by kind friends to try to sell my paintings online. I started sharing my work on Etsy in 2008. I had no art teacher to warn me about sharing my work before it was ready. I just jumped in. My audience was not made up of discerning art collectors in the beginning. I was selling my work for cheap, but I was painting all the time. So, while I was sending very juvenile and hilariously bad art out into the world, I was feeling very motivated to keep creating. My relative success was a springboard to getting better as an artist!
Fast forward 15 years and my work has changed dramatically. My self-taught art education has brought me to a place where I am proud of the work I am creating. I love to travel and paint landscapes everywhere I go. My art reflects my personality. I can be a contemplative person, looking for distilled truths in everyday life. I feel like my paintings have a similar quality about them. Many of my landscapes, even while being of specific places, feel universal to my collectors. They bring back memories of childhood or they convey a feeling for people that they want to remember always. My landscape paintings are simplified and distilled versions of the landscapes they are painted from. I love when my work resonates with collectors and appreciators. It feels good when others find beauty in the expression I give to my paintings. I always want to see my paintings as unique expressions rather than manufactured products. I want my collectors to have a piece of the artist in their home, something from my hand. When you look at a painting in a museum and you can see the brushstrokes it is almost as if you are seeing the artist’s hand at work, like it could’ve been done yesterday. I want my work to feel timeless like that. Like passing on a tangible memory.
Sometimes buying original art can feel frivolous, but it is so important to support the arts, to support living artists. A culture is remembered by its art. We find individual expression in the art we choose to surround ourselves with. Original art is like living art. It breathes beauty into our lives. It represents an artist who is able to create because of the support he/she has been given. Original art is a time capsule to be enjoyed through generations. Our minds need art. Our hearts need art. I hope that when a collector purchases a painting from me they can have a soft place to focus, a quiet place to land when life is busy all around them. I hope my work will help people slow down, appreciate something beautiful and meaningful, and find joy in a piece of living, breathing art.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I often see people at the store check-out, holding onto a giant piece of wall art. They have chosen something from the aisle that feels like it will make a big impact in their home or office for a really low price! And I’m sure some of them get that art home and they feel like it completes their space. But I want to yell out when I see it, “Buy original art! Support living artists! Or even create something yourself!” I wish society could see the value of artists and felt the need to support them. Purchasing a giant, mass produced piece of art doesn’t make you a bad person, but it is feeding into the consumer mentality of our society. Getting something quick and cheap to fill a space that we want to be instantly gratified by. Rather than valuing the idea of being selective in how we curate our lives. Growing organically with things that are meaningful to us, things that tell a story about our lives, things that rise up and comfort us, inspire us, remind us of memories, and reward us. Our society might tell us to fill our space with a specific type of decor in order to fit into a mold, but it neglects to warn us that when the trend shifts in a couple of years we will just want to throw away what we’ve accumulated to make way for the next objects. Consumerism drives a throw-away economy. While that might benefit the manufacturers of mass-produced goods, it hurts the soul of our society and it hurts artists and craftspeople!
I would love to see more people be more thoughtful of how they are curating their own lives. This would encourage people to seek out what is meaningful to them, whether it be physical objects, artwork, how they spend their time and money, etc… I know that not everyone will want a painting from me, but I would love it if more people were looking for things that they won’t ever want to throw away!
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I didn’t join the social media world until I had already been painting for almost 10 years! But I would say connecting with other artists is something I wish I had done more of earlier on. We are like rough boulders as artists, and as we brush up against other artists we get smoothed out a bit. It’s a lovely process of learning as you talk with other artists, as you paint beside them, as you bounce ideas off each other, and as you open doors of opportunity for one another. Whether you find that through social media or in your local art community, I would say connecting with other artists is one of the most important and rewarding aspects of my art journey. Lifelong friends and colleagues have been found as I’ve connected with other artists. So, if you have ever seen other artists as your competition, I want to give my personal experience to say they are not! They are your life line and greatest supporters and cheerleaders. So, get out there and make some artist friends.
Contact Info:
- Website: erinspencerart.com
- Instagram: @erinspencerart
Image Credits
All photos were taken by me!