We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anita Darling a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Anita, thanks for joining us today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. So, we’d appreciate if you could open up about your growth story and the nitty, gritty details that went into scaling up.

The nitty gritty business of business can be a windey road for lack of better phrasing! I think when we form a business we think of gaining income one way. When I began to think outside of that box is when I found a way to scale up. I had initially formed a business that provided artwork to designers, decorators and residents. I knew I still wanted to be bigger and while I had many skills with many mediums I knew it was extremely expensive to attain an even larger assortment. Those factors in hand I knew I needed to find an inexpensive way to put my hands on a more vast medium and scale up while growing my skill, knowledge and providing finished product that fit what a client would want. I shifted thought process from seeking a specific person to provide art for to thinking about the scale of providing to companies who provide art to a larger scale client. That is when I found a handful of companies who I could contract with to create for. In this way it got my art in to spaces who would have never sought an artist specifically. It also gave me the gift of a vast medium selection and access to a print and frame shop. I was now being paid to create on a scale I had never before.
Essentially I had to shift my avenue of revenue. I still do the same thing but really I get a lot of gain. I learn, I create, I sell. Not such a bad set up.

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

As an artist I will claim that I have always found comfort and solitude within my work. I recall being a small child and relishing new crayons and the feel of the new surface gliding across a page to create a masterpiece. I recall when I figured out that an artist was the one creating the color pages and that I didn’t have to follow lines someone else made up. A teacher would say, “Stay in the lines” or “Don’t mix the pay doh colors” and I remember wondering why they had such a boring outlook on what the art could be. It was not about following lines or not mixing colors. It was about the exact opposite if you felt like it. Following lines seemed more like a lesson for learning cursive to me. Essentially I’m saying that my business has been engrained in me since I can remember. Learning to sell it was another story. I think the sigma behind “starving artist” is rampant and unfortunately untrue. I began with a small art studio I felt would be a hobby space. It was the smallest public space in an art colony with loads of light and fabulous energy. I loved it! With rent of $200 a month I went as often as possible while my children were at school. I did not have any expectation that I would sell anything but that it would be a place where I could allow myself to simply be. I was asked to put prices on the pieces I had created within the colony and I did, though it wasn’t easy for me due to feeling like each piece was an offspring of sorts. Soon after pricing the artwork the colony had a public event and I reluctantly sold 2 pieces of artwork. After the sales I caught a bug! The pieces I had sold were original charcoal drawings of flowers that I had drawn plein air. The plein air work of florals is still at the heart of what I do today. To get the privilege to sit in nature and create a portrait of one of the most beautiful and honest creations on earth is all my pleasure. My motto is that there is no other more honest experience in life than to whiteness nature with all the senses. To this day I attribute my inspiration in all work to the time spent in nature.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I was extremely fortunate to have had several articles published by interior magazines including Atlanta Home Mag. I think that and the fact that I operate on using my natural esthetic when creating. So essentially people know what they are going to get when they request or purchase my skill and work. Even articles like this one benefit me. I can never say thank you enough for people interested in the arts.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

In todays world I think we have so many opportunities to connect with existing clientele or grow that clientele and that path being along the same lines. A lot of times I can reach out through a fun reel on Instagram or even post a time lapse of my creation process on TikTok. So, sometimes it may not be a direct outreach to a specific client but it could be me popping up on their feed and reminding them I’m still over here arting LOL! All of these routes touch base with my client and by the interaction and future purchases I can gauge loyalty.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.anitadarlingfineart.com/ https://www.instagram.com/anita.darling.fineart/?hl=en
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anita.darling.fineart/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/anitadarlingfineart/
• Other: https://www.atlantamagazine.com/modernstyle/

Image Credits
Tiffany Kelly Photography