We were lucky to catch up with Julie Schumer recently and have shared our conversation below.
Julie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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 am a self-taught abstract expressionist painter. I learned to paint by doing a variety of things. I committed myself without reservation to the learning process and spent untold numbers of hours experimenting with materials, techniques and styles. I went to many galleries and art museums and studied the work I liked to see if I could discern how it had been created. I also purchased many art books about artists I admired and did the same thing.
I don’t think this process can be rushed. It takes a period of years before one has learned their craft as a painter, no matter what the medium or style. Having a little more time might have helped but I was maintaining a full time career doing something else as well. Having a working knowledge of the elements of abstract painting was important as the foundation of furthering my development as a painter and I spent my early years painting learning what these elements are and how to work with them.
My biggest obstacle standing in the way of learning more was that it was too many years before I could devote myself full time to painting and marketing my work. Like most other people, I had to work.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers?
I am a former appellate attorney turned abstract expressionist painter. I started painting over 20 years ago while practicing law full time and gradually worked my way into juried shows, galleries and art fairs. I had longed to paint for years and started when a friend pushed me to do it. That was the end of my old life and the beginning of a new one.
My work is edgy, elegant and sophisticated, more for the serious collector who appreciates and wants a historical reference, who is not interested in mere decoration, but rather wants something more challenging. I provide unique and interesting work that becomes the focal point of the room where it hangs.
I also am very proud of my online abstract painting workshop program. I inspire and encourage other artists on their creative journey through these courses which cover a range of relevant topics, including abstract painting fundamentals and how to set up and successfully develop their own art business.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I built my large social media following by doing these simple things. 1. I posted consistently. 2. I offered value in my posts, by way of education and inspiration and did not just try to sell my audience either paintings or workshops. 3. I carefully curated my feed to reflect a consistent style or look. 4. I posted a lot of video snippets which helped attract many of my followers.
Any one starting to build their social media presence should do those 4 simple things. One has to have great patience when building their audience as it takes a long time to gain traction, but once you do, your audience will increase exponentially. It’s also important to keep up with the changes various platforms make, as in the areas of stories or reels, etc. Because keeping up with the creation of social media content can feel overwhelming, it’s helpful to batch create the content and pre schedule the posts using a scheduling program such as Later or Hootsuite. The most important thing is not to give up!
Have you ever had to pivot?
Before the pandemic started, my plan was to retire from the law and build up my art business, including selling more work and hosting more in person painting workshops than I had in the past. However, by April, 2020, it was obvious that in person workshops which I had scheduled and filled for that year would not be happening and I had to refund everyone their money. Within a day after that I had decided I had to turn my live program into an online one and had signed up for an expensive online course on how to create online courses. Figuring that other in person painting workshop facilitators would be doing the same thing, I worked quickly against the clock, took the how to create the online course program while creating my own program and got the first one done, up and running in less than 2 months. This was a huge amount of work and a lot of learning in a short amount of time.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.julieschumer.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julieschumerartist/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julieschumerart
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm3HVHm0GYfxTe5lwWAO7Vg
Image Credits
first 3 photos James Koskinas (my husband), remaining photos Julie Schumer