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Running a Business

Artistic Endeavors

getting past the gatekeepers

When I first started oil painting in late 2017, I really didn’t have any plans for it. For a long time, I had envisioned myself painting at an easel, holding a palette, working in oils, and producing paintings I might want to hang on my walls. I didn’t even know if I would like it enough to continue beyond painting the 100 landscapes I committed to. I wanted to give it a good, honest try and see where it led. I guessed it would probably lead to a nice side hobby. I was surprised when people wanted to buy some of my earliest efforts and shocked when a few of my early still-life paintings were licensed for reproduction. It helped tremendously that I already had an established customer base and a licensing agent for design work. That gave me a big leg up. But what I’ve come to appreciate even

February 11, 2025 20 Comments

my business story

Traumwohnen & tips on being featured in a magazine

My very first magazine feature was thrilling. It was a small blurb about my blog in Flea Market Style magazine and I was over the moon. When I started my business, I was interviewed by the college student who designed my business cards, logo, and blog as a class project. She asked about my goals for the business. Other than making enough money to help with paying off a student loan, I didn’t really know. I wanted to do well, but I really didn’t have any idea what the possibilities were. I finally thought of something a bit more specific and exciting. “It would be cool to be featured in a magazine.” (You can read more about the early days of my blog and business HERE.) Those were the days when you had to know the right people or be in the right place to get featured, but that was

January 27, 2025 6 Comments

Artistic Endeavors

my next big project(s)

After working as a creative entrepreneur since 2008, I have learned that projects come in seasons. Sometimes those seasons last for years and sometimes they are brief, fleeting. Some seasons I repeat, in new ways, over and over again because I enjoy them so thoroughly and feel called back to them. Some seasons are experienced and then come to an end. I’ve written and published two books, both in their seasons. Both were a part of my growth, my story, and my body of work. While both were about home, they were not a part of a series or a pair. They were standalone books, chronicling my two previous homes, my work on them, and how they built into me. After the first book, Inspired You, I thought that might be it. I wasn’t only an author/writer. I did many other things and wasn’t sure how writing another book would

January 15, 2025 37 Comments

Artistic Endeavors

original oil paintings to sell at Lucketts

It was sort of inevitable. I move back to within an hour from Lucketts and I get sucked back in. (And I mean that in the best possible way.) If you were reading this blog before I moved to Minnesota, you’ll remember the days when I was a full-time vendor at the Old Lucketts Store in Lucketts, VA, and when I sold at the Spring Market each year. Lucketts has always been a very special part of my story since I used to shop there over 25 years ago when I discovered a love for antiques. My first antique market over 15 years ago was at Lucketts. My business grew so much when designers and vendors from Lucketts bought my pieces, took me under their wings, mentored me, and invited me into their wonderful world. It was a hard place and community to leave when I moved over 1,000 miles

October 2, 2024 27 Comments

Running a Business

how to start a blog in 2024

Earlier this week I wrote a post arguing points showing why blogging isn’t dead. You can read that post HERE. And then, I completely neglected to share any details on how to start and grow a blog if I persuaded you to start one. So, let me fix that in this post. Let me start right off the bat by saying I started my blog in 2009, so the online landscape is very different now than it was then. I started out on the Blogger platform which was free and very easy to use. I knew so little about blogs that I didn’t even know I already had one on the WordPress platform where my website was built. Despite that fact, I started on Blogger and eventually moved over to WordPress when my blog was making enough money to hire someone to help me with that process. I want to

August 22, 2024 9 Comments

Running a Business

why blogging isn’t dead

I realize this statement might be hollow coming from a blogger, but I hope you’ll hear me out on this. My perspective on why blogging isn’t dead is much more objective than you might imagine. In fact, I’m quite pragmatic for a creative person. I can detach myself from the fact that I’m a blogger by profession and look at it from the perspective of an entrepreneur. I’m also realistic about how the internet landscape has changed over the past 15 years and how social media has altered the way we ingest content. This post is coming out of several conversations I’ve had with other business owners over the years, one as recently as last week, and I decided it was time to put all my thoughts on this issue in a blog post. I’ve always struggled with what to put on my business card since I’ve worn a lot

August 19, 2024 40 Comments

Art

royalty-free artist reference photos site launch

I’ve been working on a new project behind the scenes for a few months and now, we’re ready to officially launch! I am so excited to introduce you to my new site… www.artistreferencephotos.com One of the greatest frustrations I’ve experienced as a growing artist is finding reference photos for the things I want to paint that I might not see daily. My readers and Instagram followers have generously shared photos with me when I put the call out, but not every artist has a generous audience as a resource to tap into when specific photos are needed. Yes, artists can search for images online, but there are restrictions even on “free” photo-sharing websites and things can get sticky if you want to license your work for reproduction and sale. I found in all of my online searches that there isn’t a website that is truly a royalty-free reference photo library

June 6, 2024 16 Comments

a slice of life

April 2024 Creative Retreat Takeaways

I’m so glad I was finally able to get away for a Creative Retreat last week. It’s been over four years since the last one, so it was way overdue! I had my first Creative Retreat in 2018 and it was a special experience. Other than blog conferences, I had never taken time away from home and work specifically for creative and professional growth, study, rest, and rejuvenation. In early 2018, we had just moved to Minnesota, I was transitioning my business from furniture refinishing and selling antiques to whatever was next, and I had some big things to think about and questions about the future of my creative work to answer. I came home with clarity and a renewed enthusiasm for my work. Since then, I’ve taken a few Creative Retreats and learned that I need about one a year to clear the cobwebs, brainstorm, and gain a bit

May 10, 2024 12 Comments

I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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