We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amber Howie. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amber below.

Amber, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

It’s pretty cliche but as a child, when asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, an artist was always one of the answers. I say one of because throughout my childhood and adult years, what I have wanted to do as a job has always changed. In childhood I wanted to be an auctioneer. an archeologist, an oceanographer, a marine biologist and the list goes on. But while dreams of those jobs came and went, being an artist was always there in my mind. I jsut didn’t believe or know that you could actually make money from it so when it came to picking a subject to study at university I chose Law.

After 6 years of studying and training I qualified as a solicitor and while I enjoyed learning all about the law, I knew something was missing. There were certainly aspects of practising law that I enjoyed but I found the day-to-day activities of being a solicitor an odd mix of stressful and, quite honestly, dull. Now look, I’m not saying it’s like that for all lawyers. But for me it didn’t feel like a natural fit and it wasn’t bringing me happiness. I quit my job as a lawyer

Making the decision to leave the legal sector was not one I took lightly. I agonised over it for months, but when the day finally came for me to leave, I felt a huge weight had been lifted. But what to do now? I honestly didn’t have much of a plan. I had spent 6 years working towards this goal of being a solicitor, it had been a core part of my life for so long that I felt quite lost as to what to do next.

I brainstormed lots of ideas of what I enjoyed and I liked the idea of possibly working for myself. I knew I enjoyed being creative and a friend said they could see me as a florist. After a bit of research, I found some fantastic courses at The Cambridge Flower school. I completed 3 floristry courses, including one that focused on the business side of things. I emailed local florists asking if they would take me on for some work experience and spent a number of weeks getting some “real world” practice. I loved using my creativity again but wasn’t ready to pursue it as a career.

I tookheaded back to an office with diverse role in sales and marketing, learnt loads and had lots of fun. I had barely picked up a paint brush in 10 years by this point but I still felt like an artist at heart and would often talk about my love of painting. My big mouth paid off for once when a colleague asked to commission me to paint something for her newly decorated bedroom.

It opened the door to my inner artist and painting at the weekends brought me so much joy. More people asked to commission me and I found all I wanted to do was spend time painting. I started to believe that maybe I could make money painting. I was also inspired by all the artists I watched on YouTube that were making a living from their art. Katie JObling and Happy D Artist where paticularly formative in me wanting that lifestyle. In September of 2021 I finally felt like there was nothing to lose and everything to gain from giving it a go. I took the leap, left my full-time office job and began pursuing art as my career.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’m a landscape artist with a particular love of painting forests and trees. I sell original paintings on canvas, giclee prints and products with my art on. I also create bespoke commissioned paintings for customers.

One of my aims with my artwork is to transport the viewer to another place. My hope is that when people look at my paintings, they can imagine themselves there. Like many artists I’m heavily influenced by nature but I aim for my paintings to be more than an accurate depiction and strive to purify the beauty of nature, just past the realm of realism and into a magical world. It’s an ambitious goal but such a fun one to pursue.

One of the paintings I’m most proud of is “The Forest of Kharim”. This was one of my first commissioned pieces of artwork and it spread over 2 canvases, What I like most about it is the atmospheric and magical feeling. It feels peaceful and like somewhere I’d want to step into. Prints of this piece are also my bestseller and it’s wonderful to know that others find magic in it too.

Painting gives me a focus away from overactive thoughts. It’s a version of mindfulness where I can just concentrate on what’s in front of me. I find peace in the scenes I create and I want them to bring the viewer at least a fraction of the joy and calm I feel when creating them.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

One of the things some non-creatives I have encountered struggle to understand is that being a professional artist is still very much work. This is something I have only just come to realise too! When I was day-dreaming about becoming a professional artist, watching lots of YouTube videos of other artists painting away in their beautiful light-filled studios, I romantacised being a professional artist. I thought there would be endless time to paint whatever I felt like painting, no deadlines or time pressures and life would be easy. I’m much much happier as a professional artist than I have been in any of my previous jobs, however now that I’m actually pursuing a professional art career it is very different to what I imagined.

There are certainly still deadlines, whether that’s from a customer wanting a certain commissioned piece of art by a special occassion, creating products to sell at a craft market or more admin-based tasks such as filing taxes. I still have a responsibility to meet deadlines. There are also a lot more facets to being a professional artist than the painting part. Photographing artwork, editing those photos, building a website, writing product desriptions, setting up an Etsy shop, posting on social media, email marketing and learning about SEO. Being a professional artist is running a business and like starting any business, it’s hard work.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me it’s building new worlds. I love being able to create something that didn’t exist before and doesn’t exist in the “real” world either. It feels like magic. The process of painting can have it’s frustrations when things aren’t turning out as you’d imagined or when you don’t quite have the right technique for painting something yet but I do generally love the process. I can really get into the zone, switching off from daily stresses and focus on what I’m doing in the moment. I pop a podcast on or some music and just enjoy the here and now. I really struggle to do that outside of painting!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.amberhowieart.co.uk
• Instagram: amberhowieart
• Facebook: amberhowieart
• Other: I also send out a monthly newsletter via email at the end of each month where I share the process of how a particular painting was made, behind the scenes experiences and my plans for the month ahead. You can sign up to my newsletter by popping your email address in the box at the bottom of my website homepage www.amberhowieart.co.uk

Image Credits
All images are my own, Amber Howie Art