We recently connected with Nancy Breiman and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Nancy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I often wonder if I had followed my original plan as an artist out of high school what my life would look like today. At 62 and now retired from a corporate job of 35 years and working as a full-time artist, the answer is obvious to me. It wasn’t always.

Life is full of twists and turns and choices you make along the way. I made several defining moment choices and some choices were made for me, starting with my decision on where to go to college. I loved art in high school and my best friend was a creative too. Together, we planned to go to Syracuse University for Fine Art. We were both accepted, she went, I didn’t. The practical side of my nature told me this was a huge expense and would burden me for years after graduation with a high probability I would be a low-income earner. Instead, I attended a New York state school in Buffalo. I paid most of my own way by working throughout school and graduated with a small school loan. While there I chose to switch from a Fine Art major to an Industrial Arts major. I became a shop teacher. Again, my practical nature intervened. I learned so much about how things work and how they are made. I learned woodworking, metalsmithing, plastic injection molding, and architectural drafting and design. Little did I know how valuable this would be for me in the future.

After a year of actually teaching, my position was eliminated. I was the low man on the totem pole. I was OK with this. As a teacher of that time, I was barely able to pay my bills. What else did I know how to do? I was outgoing and curious about people and the world around me so I decided sales would be a good choice. This was an inflection point in my life.

I had several sales jobs until I found the perfect fit at IBM. Here, as a salesperson, my hands-on knowledge of manufacturing gave me an inside track, allowing me to converse intelligently with my manufacturing customers. And so my 35-year career began. During my career, I was blessed to be able to travel the world. I took every opportunity to explore on my trips with my camera in hand. It filled my creative soul.

Financially secure, I married, raised two wonderful children, and built a great life. I dabbled in many artistic endeavors while my children were growing up, I did scrapbooking, had a faux floral business. and I made custom semi-precious stone jewelry. These were great outlets to keep the artistic side of me engaged,

Nearing retirement, with grown children, I decided to learn to oil paint. Slow drying oil painting would allow me to stop and start while I was still working. I had never used oil paint so this was a fun new learning and artistic opportunity for me. I became a sponge, watching YouTube videos, taking online courses, and using my vacation to take classroom instruction at the Scottsdale Artists School.

While I learned to paint I also learned how to build my own website and use social media. All those years in the business world of technology served me well. Would I have been able to do this with no business experience fresh out of college? Probably but it would have taken longer and been very painful.

I like to think we are all a culmination of our diverse experiences, each of us offering unique skills. When I found my tribe of fellow artists I was so excited to learn from the lifelong artists and other newcomers like myself. Together we support each other, no competition, sharing in each other’s joy and successes, promoting art appreciation far and wide.

Would I do anything differently if I could do it all over again? I think not! God had a plan for me and I am exactly where I need to be, exploring and creating.

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?

Today, 5 years since picking up a paintbrush and oil paint, and countless hours of instruction and practice, I’m living my dream.

Nancy Breiman Fine Art is a multi-faceted creative studio. I’ve never been one to focus on a single medium. I always envisioned someday I would create a business that allowed me to explore and teach visual art in all its forms. That day has come, and I am excited to announce Nancy Breiman Fine Art will have a gallery, working studio, and maker space where I can create and host workshops of my own. My gallery, maker space, and personal studio is 600 square feet professionally lit, staged with large working tables, and well stocked with drawing, acrylic, watercolor, oil painting, paper collage, reverse decoupage glass, and clay supplies. While the finishing touches are being done, the grand opening of my new creative studio is being planned for April 2022. I will once again this year be a host studio for the Sonoran Arts League Hidden in the Hills Artist Studio Tour in November, hosting 4 other talented and gifted artists.

As a professional artist, I am most known for my colorful botanical oil paintings. My style is expressionistic. Most of my work is a combination of impressionism and realism where the viewer is drawn to the botanical element because it looks so real. It’s easy to spot my work as I use a bright, vivid color palette to invoke excitement and joy. Additionally, I create impressionistic paper and reverse glass collage paintings. I teach these two mediums in my workshops.

I also love to do commission work. I have painted landscapes, pet portraits, and florals for many of my clients. It is so rewarding to create something special that has real meaning for the client. I think I do my best work when I am creating a commission. I want to know everything about the subject and why the client is inspired by it. This inspires me. Many artists don’t enjoy doing commission work. I love it as it uses all my lifelong learned skills of listening, communicating, and creating.
As a businessperson from corporate America, I am reliable, honest, and timely and will always ensure my client is 100% satisfied.

Using my teaching background, I have done many workshops in paint pouring, paper collage, and reverse glass decoupage. I have also taught a summer Youth program for K-2 at the Sonoran Arts League. It is my goal to encourage a lifelong habit of creativity. Appreciating and creating art in any form is so important to our society. Art education teaches us all how to approach ideas from an unfamiliar perspective, be fearless, and appreciate the differences in the world around us allowing us to be open to new ideas for problem-solving.

Being as blessed as I am, I am giving back to my art world, I participate in fundraisers for many organizations, donating my time, knowledge, and art to support causes meaningful to me. I am also a board member of the Sonoran Arts League where I share my experience to benefit the growth of this 600+ member Arts organization. I’m passionate about the Arts and hope to inspire others to add joy to their lives through creativity and art appreciation.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I’ve learned a lot in the last five years about the importance of properly setting up an art business for success. Fortunately for me, I am very computer savvy and have a wonderful tribe of artist friends who have paved the way before me. It’s not enough to just create, no one will buy your art or engage in your service offerings if they don’t know about you. As one of my good friends, Kirby Plessas says, “it’s all about eyeballs” and she is so right.

Most art collectors want to know they are buying a piece of art that will appreciate over time. Even if I’ll never be a Picasso or Renoir, it’s still important to me that I present my art and my art business as a reputable, creative source for my clients. I’ve found that creating trust through the consistency of communication ensures my collectors I am here to stay.

Here are a few suggestions that I hope will help you whether you are a longtime creator or just getting started.
1) Create your brand. What makes you different than other artists working in the same medium?
2) Use your name as your business and if you have a common name, add a tagline that differentiates you.
3) Create a simple website. Real businesses have websites where collectors can see your work. Invite viewers to subscribe which will help you build your email marketing list.
4) Build an overall marketing plan. Think big but start small. Don’t take on too many social media platforms at once as you will find yourself spending all your time managing them and not creating.
5) Facebook. It’s still the social media platform of choice for people over 45. If this is your audience, build your presence on Facebook by creating a page just for your art. Invite your friends and family to follow your page and be consistent in posting your latest work and upcoming shows. Continually invite your new connections to follow you. Join other FB groups and follow their rules. Engage in those groups. Don’t only post your work for sale in these groups. Selling, especially art, is a relationship process. Be conscious of what you post everywhere. Remember, you are a brand.
6) Instagram. A very fun social media that allows you to show who you are. Again, you’re a brand. Stories and reels let you post videos. Keep them short and be consistent.
7) Regardless of which platform/s you choose, be consistent and continue to learn about the platform changes. If this isn’t your thing, seek help. There are many social media platform experts out there. My personal favorite is a wonderful Facebook group started by Kirby Plessas called “Curious Kirby Creatives”. Kirby is an artist and social media platform expert who also runs a Cybersecurity business. She’s a wealth of information.

If this all feels a little overwhelming, I get it. The key to making social media work for you is to start. You’ll learn as you go.

Have you ever had to pivot?

As with all businesses, you need to be keenly aware of market-changing directions. The art business is no different. I’m finding more and more collectors are willing to buy online. This is likely due to the prolonged period most of us spent sequestered in our homes during Covid. It became a necessity to shop online. Now, for many, it’s second nature. So how do you take advantage of this new art buying model? For me, I now search for more online, digital shows instead of just local in person shows. This is also a good thing as it creates an opportunity to get my art in front of collectors beyond my locale. I recently participated in an online show in Rhode Island where I was awarded third place for my work. Prior to Covid I would never have thought of searching for an opportunity so far from Arizona. Now, the world is my oyster and I look everywhere for opportunities where I think my art will be a good fit.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nancybreiman.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nbreiman/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joyfulpainter/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPc4EIuspDv_GLQD6a3bKRw

Image Credits
Nancy Breiman