I’m pretty much in the studio 24/7 painting or doing all kinds of necessary stuff (applying to art shows, bookkeeping, blogging… etc.), but when I’m not physically in the studio, you can find me:

Assembling prints for upcoming art shows in our other office. The whole process of printing, lining it up with the matting and packing it with the backing board and the bio takes a few hours. I usually do 10 at a time to break it up.

Filling up on ideas from the latest interior design, travel and garden/flower magazines. If the magazines or blogs I subscribes to are not enough, I head to our local Barnes & Noble and check the magazine racks. Nature itself is a huge inspiration and I especially love English gardens.

Eating delicious Swedish food at IKEA. Well, it’s not something I do very often but last week I went to pick up some frames to frame some of my prints and put in my art booth.

I’m lucky to have not just one, but two(!!) IKEA’s within driving distance. Some people have to drive for several hours to stock up on Swedish ingredients, cheap house wear or furniture. I go to IKEA for the food. I love the chocolate, caviar, herring and shrimp. Oh my. So yummy.

Taking photos of my art. A lot of time is spent getting the most accurate high resolution photos of my art work after it’s finished. It’s an investment which takes the right natural light, the right setting and my patience. Most times, I have to settle for two out of three. After each photo shoot, I process the photos in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe PhotoShop. Some times it takes half a day to get it all done but it’s definitely worth it as I can use the photos for prints and note cards.

Baking. No, not at all, but yesterday I just had to take my mind off that the two printers I needed wasn’t working for the second day in the row and after hours of being frustrated, I decided I needed some good Swedish cinnamon buns! They definitely didn’t come close to the ones my sister makes from scratch, and I even managed to burn the bottoms on some. Oh well, just confirms I’m sticking to painting.

Hope that gives you some insight in how the days of a full-time artist is spent! 🙂 Minus the baking!

xo,
Erica