Amy Webber has always considered herself an artist, but didn’t take it seriously until just a few years ago. Despite all the encouragement she received to pursue a career in the arts, she internalized the idea that you can’t make a decent living as an artist, and developed a fear that utilizing her ‘outlet’ as a career would turn it into a source of stress and ultimately, resentment.
Having other strengths in academics, she ended up studying psychology and working in the field for several years, and even started studying to apply for medical school at one point.
After feeling like she had been stifling who she is at her core, she began to believe that if she truly gave herself the time and freedom to create, the artist within would flourish.
A random series of events led to Amy taking up landscape photography as a hobby in 2016. And while sitting on a pile of beautiful photos that she could use as reference to paint from, she received the inspiration she needed to finally start a career as an artist. She invested in a set of soft pastels and created her first landscape from her own photo, and the response was incredible. She knew she had a calling.
Pursuing a full-time career as an artist hasn’t been easy, as Amy explains that her journey has been a bit of a rollercoaster, full of learning experiences. But through all the ups and downs she’s 100% certain that this is the road she wants to be on, and is happy that her fear of resenting her art has been completely unfounded.
Through some of the lessons Amy has come to find when it became her full time job drove home the importance of supporting other local artists and creatives.
Seeing how instant and inexpensive the availability of mass-produced products are of just about anything, Amy says that it can sometimes feel daunting and disheartening to be an artist.
With a goal and mission to create work that evokes emotion and connection, Amy feels that human connection is what gives meaning to life.
Amy says it’s a privilege to have found something that lights a fire within her. Her connection to art is intrinsic to a high quality of life, and it’s a feeling that has strengthened over time.
If you visit Amy’s Instagram account, it’s clear to see that her chosen subjects are seascapes and landscapes. And her ability to create works that capture the light with such accuracy and photographic realism is astonishing. Social media has been incredibly beneficial because it’s put Amy in contact with a wonderful community of other artists who can all relate to and are supportive of one another.
As an artist who holds herself to a high standard of quality, she says that there is so much more to creating work than sheer talent alone. Even though painting can be meditative and therapeutic and wonderful in so many ways, the intricacy of it takes a lot of stamina, and there are parts of the process that can be very frustrating.
For as long as she can remember, her mind has been incessantly buzzing with creativity. It’s a major part of what gives her a sense of purpose in life – that is, to create beautiful things, to give life to something that existed only in her mind, and show people the world through her lens.
With her mind constantly buzzing with creativity she spends less time on passive things like watching TV. And as a strong self-motivator she explains that she always needs to be working on something, even if she’s been painting all day and is too tired to keep working, she’ll move on to her laptop and do some research or order materials for whatever she’s working on next.
Amy’s love for landscape and seascape paintings resonate a moody and somber feeling with deep blues and greys, fog and clouds. Before she started painting landscapes, she mostly drew people, and was drawn to moodier images there as well.
With humility, Amy admits that she doesn’t quite feel like she’s reached the point of success she’d like to achieve in her career. But that she has smaller successes that she feels incredibly proud of, and finds those little victories proof and validation that she is on the right trajectory to achieving those goals.
Like any new career, Amy’s path has been full of learning experiences. And it’s taken her some time to learn how to monetize a business as an artist.
Her studio space has had to undergo constant changes in order to fulfill a plethora of daily duties that comes with being a business owner. She’s had to schedule and devote time to more than just her painting. But being flexible in her ability to change and adapt in order to fulfill daily tasks, whether it be rearranging her small studio for social media photoshoots, or working on prints and covering her entire floor by cutting mats and X-Acto knives, she understands that the dream only works if you do.
Diving in with artist Amy Webber.
Amy Webber has always considered herself an artist, but didn’t take it seriously until just a few years ago. Despite all the encouragement she received to pursue a career in the arts, she internalized the idea that you can’t make a decent living as an artist, and developed a fear that utilizing her ‘outlet’ as a career would turn it into a source of stress and ultimately, resentment.
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