Show Notes:
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On today's episode, we sat down with Elizabeth Robbins, a floral still life artist whose passion for flowers began during her childhood and has now remained her favorite subject to paint. Elizabeth tells us about her path going from being an athlete to picking up a brush and never setting it down while studying decorative arts all the way through her shift into fine art. She also talks to us about how painting not only helped her support her family full time after her husband's sudden passing, but it also helped her find healing and inspiration in the creative process. Elizabeth also reminds us to paint from the heart and to present yourself as a professional artist, even if you're not full-time yet by having such things as a website and an organized portfolio. She also emphasizes the importance of using online platforms to get your work seen since that can become a major sales channel either for your work or for your courses or workshops. Finally, Elizabeth tells us all about her online classes on InspiredtoPaint.com as well as her upcoming workshop!
Elizabeth's FASO site:
https://www.elizabethrobbinsart.com/
Elizabeth's online classes:
https://inspiredtopaint.com/
Elizabeth's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/elizabethrobbinsart/
Elizabeth's YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@elizabethrobbins
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Transcript:
Elizabeth Robbins 00:00
It's like your handwriting. You don't find your handwriting, your you know your handwriting finds you. Instead of trying to paint like this person, or paint like this person, I just, I just painted, and I think that's what people need to do, is they need to just get to the easel and just paint from their heart and not so much from their head, because I think sometimes when we paint from their head, you're painting paintings, but when you're painting from your heart, then you're painting art, then you're creating art.
Laura Arango Baier 00:30
Welcome to the BoldBrush show, where we believe that fortune favors the bold brush. My name is Laura Arango Baier, and I'm your host. For those of you who are new to the podcast, we are a podcast that covers art marketing techniques and all sorts of business tips specifically to help artists learn to better sell their work. We interview artists at all stages of their careers, as well as others were in careers tied to the art world, in order to hear their advice and insights. On today's episode, we sat down with Elizabeth Robbins, a floral still life artist whose passion for flowers began during her childhood and has now remained her favorite subject to paint. Elizabeth tells us about her path going from being an athlete to picking up a brush and never setting it down while studying decorative arts all the way through her shift into fine art. She also talks to us about how painting not only helped her support her family full time after her husband's sudden passing, but it also helped her find healing and inspiration in the creative process. Elizabeth also reminds us to paint from the heart and to present yourself as a professional artist, even if you're not full time yet by having such things as a website and an organized portfolio. She also emphasizes the importance of using online platforms to get your work seen, since that can become a major sales channel, either for your work or for your courses or workshops. Finally, Elizabeth tells us all about her online classes on inspiredtopaint.com as well as her upcoming workshop. Welcome Elizabeth to the BoldBrush show. How are you today?
Elizabeth Robbins 01:50
I am doing good. Thanks for having me. Worse. I'm happy to have you. I am such a fan of people who paint flowers.
Laura Arango Baier 02:00
I absolutely love people who paint flowers, because the way that people like you who paint flowers, the way that you do it, it's just, I don't know, I find that it has such poetry in it. I feel like a lot of people who are like you are very poetic, and especially when, yeah, and especially when I was reading on your website how even as a child, you collected flowers and you press them. And I thought that was so cute. I yeah, there's just something about your work that I think is I would love to have one of your pieces hanging out my wall, because I could just stare at it for hours.
Elizabeth Robbins 02:36
Well, that's the biggest compliment you could have given me. So thank you. I love that word poetry, the poetry of the painting, poetry of flowers. I love that. Thank you.
Laura Arango Baier 02:55
You're welcome. Yeah, there's just always something in the breaststrokes and in the expression of flowers that I mean, I don't know if I could pull it off that. Well, you definitely inspire me to try. But I love it. But before we dive more into your work, do you mind telling us a bit more about who you are and what you do?
Elizabeth Robbins 03:09
Well, I am Elizabeth Robbins and I am a rural still life artist, but I am a mother to three great children, a one daughter in law and a fantastic three year old granddaughter named Georgia grace, who we absolutely all adore and love and keeps us laughing. But yeah, I, I love painting. I have always been really creative, and I'll, you know, always working with my hands and things like that. And but who am I? I'm, if my brother says, Liz, there are people who love flowers, and then there's you, and you take it to a whole nother level. So I'm, I am just somebody who absolutely loves flowers, and that's why I paint them. So that's who I am. And a gardener, and a gardener,
Laura Arango Baier 04:06
I was gonna mention that, yeah, because you mentioned earlier how you also have a garden, like you have a beautiful studio, which you showed me. And of course, for our listeners, I recommend checking out either Elizabeth's website or the video once it comes out, so you guys can see it. But, yeah, do you so you grow your own flowers, right?
Elizabeth Robbins 04:25
I put, I do, yeah, I do. And that that's always been really important to me to be able to grow the flowers. It's this whole process for me for painting. It's just, you know, planting the the seeds of the plant, watering, nurturing, weeding. I mean, I even go out there and I talk to the flowers. People ask me, how do you get your roses to grow so well? And I said, I go out there and say, Oh, you're so beautiful. And I they respond to that. And my fact, my daughters once told me they were out in the garden one time, and they said, Mom, your flowers love you. And I. Like, well, it's mutual, but so it's that whole process of beginning to end, from planting them, watering them, caring for them, cutting them, bringing them to this studio and and putting their life force on canvas. That's that's just what I love to do. And so, yeah, I built my studio back in 2016 it was always a dream of mine to have a studio where I could just walk out, cut my flowers and bring them in and paint. So I accomplished that dream. I have over 100 rose bushes that are that take a lot of time, but I have peonies, day lilies, pansies. I have fruit trees, apple, peach, apricot. I have blackberries, blueberries. It's it's a grapes, it's a lot of work.
Laura Arango Baier 05:50
Amazing. I would love to be a guest at your house to have some fresh pie.
Elizabeth Robbins 05:57
Well, I don't cook. In fact, yeah, all this stuff, like the apricots and everything, which I love to eat apricots, and I'm looking out my window, and they're just about right, but they get painted more than they get that they get eaten. When my kids were little, I would, you know, buy fruits like watermelon and stuff like this, and they got into the habit of asking, Mom, can we eat this fruit, or is this for a painting?
Laura Arango Baier 06:28
That was pretty funny. Oh, that's adorable. Yeah. I mean, if I was a kid and I knew you were painting, I would also be like, Hmm, I don't want to eat my mom's sleep. Yeah. Basically the sitter, right? Because at this point, the way that you're referring to your garden and your flowers, it's almost like when you paint them, it's like a portrait more than a school life, yeah,
Elizabeth Robbins 06:48
so don't eat the props. No.
Laura Arango Baier 06:54
Oh, man. But so now that we know that you have loved flowers forever, now comes the question of, when did this love develop into following the path of actually, you know, making paintings of them. When did you decide I want to be an artist?
Elizabeth Robbins 07:13
Well, so I come from a pretty talented family, but most everybody is musical in my family. My mother was a professional singer. We've got a lot of singers and a lot of musicians in our in our family, but I was the only one that took the path of of painting. But, you know, I was always doing creative things growing at my and my grandmother's. I want to kind of fall back and say, the reason, one of the reasons why I love flowers so much, is because of my grandmothers and my because my grandmothers loved flowers. I loved and adored my grandmothers, and they would, I would walk along our mountain path. We have a cabin up in the mountains, and we would put pick wildflowers and press them in a book and help me categorize them. And I just have, I still have that book, and that memory has just stuck with me all my life. And so there was that connection to my grandmother's as well as the flowers, which is why I love painting the flowers. But I had and in my younger days, I actually was an athlete, I was a competitive gymnast and a diver. Competed competitively and won lots of medals, lots of awards and things like that. But and so like in high school, I have high school friends say, you never, I never knew you were an artist. You didn't take any art classes in in high school, I said, Well, no, I didn't. It was because I was living at the gym all the time, competing in high school and but E L E L E how did so I pick up the paintbrush? My mother had taken. This is just a crazy story, but my mother had taken I was 20 years old. My mother had taken a toll painting class, if you remember, way back then. And this, this was in the late 80s, I guess, had taken a toll painting class. And she says, Elizabeth, well, let me back up and said, I was taken drawing in college. And this was 1981 82 I was, I was taken drawing in college, but what they were teaching back then was more conceptual art, and it wasn't. It didn't appeal to me what was going on there. But I took the class because it was like an easy a kind of thing, you know. But my mom called me up and said, Elizabeth, come see what I've done. Come see this. And I so I went over there and she showed me this little tin plate of strawberries on it, and I and I go, Oh, Mom, that's so cute. And she says, Let me show you how I did it. And she handed me the paintbrush, and that was the other than the paint by number kits that you get as children. That was the first time I'd actually picked up a paintbrush and started painting. And I thought, well, this is really this is really fun. And and so that led me into the decorative art world, where I started studying with a master decorative artist named Mary Jo leisure, who is an incredible artist, beautiful person inside and out. We kind of joke around that she practically raised me, because I think I was 2022, or something, the first time I went and studied with her, but she and she, her focus was on, was on flowers, and she had this incredible color sense and composition sense. But I studied with her for about 10 years and and got into the decorative art world pretty high where I was creating my own designs and books and things like that, that people would buy my designs and things like that. But I'd always had this desire to be more, you know, more in the fine art world, not so much in the decorative art world. And so I started teaching. I started taking portrait classes from the community college, from a guy in Pittsburgh, Robert Daly, and who's a wonderful portrait artist in Pittsburgh, and studied with him for a number of years. But I'm kind of digressing. What was the question, How did I become a professional artist? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, yeah, I started taking the portrait classes because I wanted to paint my children. Is, you know, that was the goal, was to paint my children. And I got pretty good night. And so I started getting some portrait commissions for other people's children. And I quickly realized I didn't like painting other people's children nearly as much as I like painting my own. So, but one day he said to me, why don't you paint a still life? And I said, you know, I'm really not interested in painting still life. And he says, But you're so good at flowers, you know? Why don't you just set up a still life and and see how it goes? And I kept kind of, I don't know, well, one day I said, I set up a still life, that I painted, and I went, Oh my gosh, this is this is what I need to be doing. So that kind of continued to progress where I was doing more more still life, and I in 2004 was when I first got into galleries. And that was just kind of that, just all the planets aligned that day for me to get I got into Meyer Gallery, and Scott still went and showed them my work, and they said, Well, we're having a still life show. Let's have a couple of these. And they sold the paintings of the still life show, which was really, really cool, but I, um, you know, my husband made a good living back then. And I, I wasn't needing to be a full time artist at that point in the game, but I, and then I got picked up by another gallery in Park City, which was, was wonderful, but again, it wasn't, I wasn't needing to do it full time because my husband made a good living. But then my husband passed away in 2007 and I found myself in a financial nightmare, because in 2008 we all know what happened. And it was, it was a it was pretty difficult, but that was I had to figure out a way to make a living to support my kids. I still had kids in school, and so I just, you know, buckled down and said, Well, I got to do this. I got to do this full time, because I don't know, I don't know how to do anything else. I think I know how to do paint. And let me back up and say I also did wall murals and faux finishing. I think I've, I think I've done everything possible art related so that I wouldn't have to go out and get a nine to five job. Because I have worked for myself since I was 20 years old. Never worked for anybody else but myself since I was 20 years old. But so I just, I just buckled down and said, I have got, I've got to figure out how to make, you know, a good living at art, because it's only me now, this is, this is it, and I gotta, I still have kids they gotta raise and a mortgage to pay and bills to pay. So I was, I was very fortunate that in, you know, meeting the right people, I think, you know, I have angels that have helped me along the way, and anyway, that that is my path to becoming a professional artist.
Laura Arango Baier 14:25
Wow, that is very inspiring. I was not expecting you know that that you also had to put forth even more effort because of your loss, right? That's very unexpected, and it's also very commendable that you pushed ahead and you did it, which is amazing.
Elizabeth Robbins 14:44
Well, it and I would give it all up to have my husband back. You know, I would never paint a day in my life if I could just have my husband back. But that's not going to happen. But I also know, had he not died, I probably. I wouldn't have been able, I wouldn't have achieved what I've achieved in my career. And I know, you know, I've, I've helped a lot of people. I've, I've painted a lot of paintings that have helped heal people. And I truly believe that art heals people. It has healed me. And if, if I can, again, digress a little bit about the death of my husband, there was probably only four or five weeks after he died, I had, I had to go teach a workshop, and I had 35 people in the class, and a lot of these people knew my husband, so they were grieving with me, but and it was really difficult to get up there and paint and teach and everything. But there was, I was walking around the room and helping people with their paintings, and I was stopped dead in my track when a voice said to me, you'll focus on one thing and time will become irrelevant. I just stopped right there. And it was a voice as I know people joke and say, you know, but it was as if somebody actually said it. That's how clear I said it, and I realized right then and there, that as I've been walking around helping people paint, that I didn't know if it'd been five minutes, 10 minutes or an hour. I had no idea because I had lost all track of time because I was helping people with their paintings. And that that was a turning point for me right then and there that I that not only did painting help me through my grief, but I can help others through their their grief or their pain or their troubles as as well.
Laura Arango Baier 16:32
Yeah, yeah. And now that you mentioned it, you know, flowers is something that we give in those types of occasions as well. We give them, you know, as a present for celebrations, but also as a present for, you know, when someone is grieving because flowers, you know, they're you know that whole idea of the Vanitas, right, that life isn't going to last forever, and we might as well make the most of it, which is a beautiful message. It is.
Elizabeth Robbins 16:56
And actually, I have, I say, bonitas. I have a painting named bonitas, so Laura Arango Baier 17:02 it's perfect, yeah, yeah, wow, wow. That is a beautiful, beautiful story, because it is. It is really L E L E L it's perfect, yeah, yeah, wow, wow. That is a beautiful, beautiful story, because it is. It is really hard to lose people, and it's good to, you know, use that grief almost as like an impetus to continue is, and to you know, put it into something else, as you said, to heal. Because I agree with you, the act of creation can be very, very healing. So that's that's very, very beautiful. And actually, it also makes me wonder, in your work, who or what do you find has been the greatest influence for you?
Elizabeth Robbins 17:44
Well, I'll have to say that, you know, some of the people I've studied with, I always tried to Study With the Best right from the beginning. And you know, Robert Johnson was a big influence on my career, and early in that, I took from him along a couple times, and he's just a beautiful floral painter, if you know his work. Henry Fantin Latour obviously, is a huge influence with his his roses. What you know? Boy, well, I have loved to paint it with him. And I would have to say Abbott Thayers roses painting is is probably one that I could just look at for hours and just weep, because it's it just speaks to me. It's just such a beautiful painting. There's so much emotion in that the grays are just beautiful, living more living artist, Quang Ho. I could sit at Quang Ho's feet forever, watch him paint. I studied with Dan Gerhardt. Such a beautiful person, such a great teacher. I mean, they're just, you know, that's I. So I did try to study with some of the best right off, right off the bat. They've been huge influences on me. Wow.
Laura Arango Baier 19:01
Yeah, those are all great. I also really love Fanta Latour and, yeah, there's something also about the those, like, I say, like I said earlier, you know, there's just something about flower paintings that they're just like I said, a little piece of poetry from life. And I really see that in your work as well. I can totally see all those influences too, so well.
Elizabeth Robbins 19:22
And then one more Van Gogh. I wasn't a big van Gogh fan earlier on because I thought, you know, the guy, his symmetries off, you know, I just I wasn't a real big van Gogh fan until I saw one in person, and I stood there, and honestly, my knees got weak. The energy that pours off of his paintings is just amazing. And of course, the more you learn about him and how tortured he was, and of course, I think all orchard, all artists, are a bit tortured be included. But, you know. I and Monet sunflowers, I just blows me away. It's just such an incredible experience to stand in front of those originals and and feel that energy that they put into those paintings and still lives today.
Laura Arango Baier 20:17
It's amazing to me. Yes, yeah. I'm also a huge fan of seeing those images and those paintings in person, because it's one thing to see them in a picture, but when you see them in person, and you see the brush strokes and the expressiveness that's that's like on top, it takes on a whole new a whole different experience to see them in person, for sure.
Elizabeth Robbins 20:33
Yes!
Laura Arango Baier 20:39
Yeah, which actually, it makes me wonder, too, what inspires you to paint?
Elizabeth Robbins 20:52
What inspires me to paint? Well, besides the flowers, the flowers, you know I, somebody asked me, why, you know, how much do you love painting? I said, Well, how much do you love breathing? So it's kind of like if I and I don't paint every day, a lot of people say, Do you paint every day? Because I am pretty prolific. I can put out good body of work, especially in the summertime when the flowers are blooming. But I go in spurts where, you know, I may go two weeks where I'm just non stop painting, then I might go two weeks where I don't paint at all. But there's, again, there's something about painting that things that are that I'm saying in my paintings I can't say in words. There are things in my heart that I can't convey to you verbally, but I can convey to you through my paintings and and the fact that I get lost. I get lost in that painting. And there's sometimes, there have been times where I feel like I'm almost a conduit to somebody that has already crossed over. And they just, they want the joy of painting again. There was a my husband had brought me, brought me this beautiful, big orchid plant. And I said, Oh my gosh, I can't wait to paint that. Well, he went off to work, and I set it up, and I started painting, and he came home, but I didn't, I didn't hear him and or anything, I I was still just painting, and he said something, and he startled me, like I didn't even hear you come home, and he says, Liz, an earthquake would happen when you're painting, and you wouldn't even know it. But I stood back. It was as if I came out of a trance, and I looked at the painting, and I said, Did I just paint that? I didn't even remember painting it, but it was such an incredible experience that that has stuck with me. But there, there is a it is about trying to convey what's in my heart that I can't eloquently say with words I can. I can say it so much more eloquently and spiritually and beautifully in my paintings that I can with my words. If that makes sense.
Laura Arango Baier 23:07
That makes perfect sense, yes, and I love that you mentioned that you feel like a conduit, because I actually have found that as well, that sometimes when we're painting, it's as if something else is painting through us, you know, like, we're just like this vessel for this creative force to do what it wants to do, right? That's, that's very beautiful. You know, being a medium for this, and the fact that you couldn't even remember painting it, that's insane.
Elizabeth Robbins 23:39
I couldn't, I'm trying. I actually the original painting sold somewhere around here, wondering where I have the I have a print of it, but the original painting sold, and that is one painting I wish I hadn't sold. I wish I had kept it. Wow, yeah, because it was such an incredible experience.
Laura Arango Baier 23:57
Yeah. Oh, man. And actually, now that you mentioned, you know, specific flowers, right? Because you said that was an orchid painting. Is there a specific flower that you really love to paint?
Elizabeth Robbins 24:11
Well, hands down roses. Absolutely hands down roses. And I so most of the variety that I grow are the David Austin variety. And that's like the painting back there. Those are all David Austin variety roses and and actually, yellow is my favorite color rose to paint my my mother, I probably have more yellow roses than anything. In fact, a couple years ago I put myself on yellow. I was forbidden to buy any more yellow roses. So then I started buying lavender roses. So now I have like 15 lavender roses. So now I'm on a lavender boycott. But there's what was that? What was I gonna say about the roses? Now I can't remember my train of thought just went about the roses. Yes, that's the, mainly the David Austin variety, which are like the old, you know, the cabbage roses.
Laura Arango Baier 25:05
So, yeah, yeah. I was gonna say they kind of remind me of, like peonies, because they're very, very similar.
Elizabeth Robbins 25:09
They do. A lot of them do look alike, yeah.
Laura Arango Baier 25:13
Yeah for sure, beautiful, yeah.
Elizabeth Robbins 25:14
And then probably sunflowers. Peonies, sunflowers and roses are probably my favorite flowers to paint. My least favorite, to be honest, are daylilies, which is interesting because I have a ton of daylily flowers out in my garden, and I just set up daylilies yesterday to paint, but they're my they're my least favorite. And I'm not quite sure I think it's the form. It's the form of the day lily that I'm I'm not partial to, as opposed to the form of the roses.
Laura Arango Baier 25:48
At BoldBrush, we inspire artists to inspire the world, because creating art creates magic, and the world is currently in desperate need of magic. Boldbrush provides artists with free art, marketing, creativity and business ideas and information. This show is an example. Boldbrush provides artists with free art marketing, creativity and business ideas and information. This show is an example. We also offer written resources, articles and a free monthly art contest open to all visual artists. We believe that fortune favors the boldbrush video, and if you believe that too, sign up completely free@boldbrushshow.com that's BOLDBRUSH show.com. The BoldBrush Show is sponsored by FASO. Now more than ever, it's crucial to have a website when you're an artist, especially if you want to be a professional in your career. Thankfully, with our special link FASO.com/podcast, you can make that come true, and also get over 50% off your first year on your artist website. Yes, that's basically the price of 12 lattes in one year, which I think is a really great deal, considering that you get sleek and beautiful website templates that are also mobile, friendly, e commerce, print on demand in certain countries, as well as access to our marketing center that has our brand new art marketing calendar. And the art marketing calendar is something that you won't get with our competitor. The art marketing calendar gives you day by day, step by step, guides on what you should be doing today right now, in order to get your artwork out there and seen by the right eyes so that you can make more sales this year. So if you want to change your life and actually meet your sales goal this year. Then start now by going to our special link, faso.com forward slash podcast. That's FASO.com/podcast. I mean, that makes sense. I mean, we all have, like, objects and things that we we don't really vibe with. Um, but yeah, I, I, yeah, I can see why you would be attracted to those really nice roses, especially also because they have that gorgeous sort of, you know, they almost feel much more deeply chromatic on the inside, and as you like, come out, they're more gentle and pastelly.
Elizabeth Robbins 27:54
That is absolutely, that is so true. And I'm and I'm happy and surprised that you know that, because a lot of that's what I teach in my classes, is that, you know, the interior petals are the newest, and they're the most chromatic. They're they're it's like us. You know, when we're younger, we're fresher, we're more vibrant. As we get older, we kind of lose our shine. But those outer petals this, you know, they've seen the sun, the wind, the weather, a little bit more. So they've they've lost their color, and unfortunately, it's the same with humans. As we get older, we kind of lose our our flavor a little bit, but we're still beautiful.
Laura Arango Baier 28:30
Yes, yeah. And you know what I feel like, if you only had the inside of the flower, right? If it was only that chromatic part, it looks really lonely, like you need both of those parts to really balance out that beauty of the rose, you know, that renewal that it has on the inside versus the outside.
Elizabeth Robbins 28:49
And I think that's very absolutely, absolutely the, you know, it's the yin and yang, the, you know, grit, dull and bright and light dark.
Laura Arango Baier 28:57
Oh, you're it, yeah, no, you're good. No worries. Um, yeah, and I'm actually happy you answered a question I was going to ask. Which was your least favorite?
Elizabeth Robbins 29:16
Um, I Yeah, that. Well, hold on, hold on a second. I feel bad. I feel bad. I'm gonna say, I gotta, I gotta say to these guys, I'm, you're beautiful. Okay, I will paint you and you are beautiful.
Laura Arango Baier 29:28
Oh, they are very pretty. But there is something about their form that, yeah, at least if I was gonna paint them, they look quite challenging.
Elizabeth Robbins 29:38
They can be Richard Schmidt. He's another one that was a highly influential on you know, I just love Richard's work. But the problem with day lilies is that they there's a reason why they are called day lilies, and it's because they only last a day, because these were all blooming. These were all blooming yesterday, and this one was the bud so but. I just had to tell them that they're beautiful so they don't feel bad,
Laura Arango Baier 30:04
yeah, so that they'll, they'll be happy when you're painting them at least in the last moments of their life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the hard part about working with flowers too. They're, they're so limited in their time period. Do you have, like, a process also to try to, like, keep them a little longer, because I know some some people who have who paint flowers, they put them in their refrigerator or in their freezer. Do you also have a process?
Elizabeth Robbins 30:28
Well, for sure, so the roses probably are the most gentle or most fragile, and so definitely, I will cut them early in the morning, when it's still cool, and put them in the fridge for about an hour to harden them a little bit, and and then, you know, this is actually right there where the big sun, the pink rose painting is. That's where I set up my still life. And you can see, this morning, I went and cut some sunflowers. I want to go paint those, but I am, you know when, years back in the 90s, I was doing wall murals, and I, you know, I was doing children's entrances with lions and tigers and bears and tree frogs and all that kind of stuff. And time was money, so I learned to paint fast. But you do even when you're painting with flowers. You learn to paint pretty fast, because you only, you know, have so long. And in the summertime, I may set up two or three setups in one day and get a good start on every single one, and then, and then come back later, and, you know, either finish them from a photograph, if, if I have to, or sometimes I don't even need the photograph. It's just about what the you know, what the painting needs at that point. But this the pink sunflower, or pink rose piece that was all painted from life. But and if you keep them in the fridge, they'll they'll last quite a while. Sunflowers will last a long time. Peonies can last a long time. You know, if you keep putting them in the fridge at night, bringing them back out there, certain tulips don't last very long. They're they're a difficult flower because they change a lot. Literally, sometimes you can, even while you're painting, you can watch the tulip move. So that's a difficult one to paint from life. And anemones are almost impossible to paint from life because they, they, they literally move in real time.
Laura Arango Baier 32:21
Oh my gosh, that's insane,
Elizabeth Robbins 32:24
yeah, but sunflowers will stay good for several days.
Laura Arango Baier 32:28
Okay, that's good. So if someone was a beginner at it, they would probably be better off with a sunflower first, or do something small, you know, like one, just a couple roses in a single vase or something that you know, that was that painting, right?
Elizabeth Robbins 32:36
There was a lot to tackle from life. It was over. It was over three days, and by the end of the three days, a lot of the roses had already wilted, and there was a whole lot more petals on the ground than when I started. But yeah, I would just start with something simple. Don't try and tackle a dozen roses from life if you're just starting out, start out with one rose in a vase or just, you know, just something really simple.
Laura Arango Baier 33:10
Yeah, that's intense. Yeah, it's fascinating, too, because you would think, you know, the flowers are so gentle and soft, and then meanwhile, you're, like, burning that Canvas moving as fast as possible.
Elizabeth Robbins 33:24
Yeah, I thought my my starts are pretty fast. I, you know, I can get something blocked in really, really quickly, because I'm really attacking the canvas, but, you know, then towards the end, I really slow down, but that first initial block in happens within minutes.
Laura Arango Baier 33:40
Honestly, that's it. That's Wow, incredible, absolutely incredible. And actually, I did see too that you have a YouTube channel, which I was so happy to see.
Elizabeth Robbins 33:53
I do have a YouTube channel,
Laura Arango Baier 33:55
yeah, and you document some of your process there too, right?
Elizabeth Robbins 33:57
I do. I have a lot of time lapse videos there, and some full length videos on my YouTube channel. Most of the most of the time lapse videos are taken from my inspired to paint online course where, you know, I'll take that full lesson that I did for our paid members and kind of condense it down and do a time lapse where you can watch it for free, so you kind of get a glimpse of of my process. Yeah, amazing, yeah.
Laura Arango Baier 34:25
And why? Why did you decide to start your your YouTube channel? If you don't mind me asking.
Elizabeth Robbins 34:30
So Well, back in 2008 I so I filmed with little doll publications, our productions, which you now streamline, bought out that. So I did two videos with Lilla doll and and she had put together a trailer, you know, and had posted it on YouTube. And I didn't, I hadn't had a YouTube back then, and I thought, well, if I'm, you know, maybe I need to help promote this video. So I started to YouTube, but I didn't really work it very well. I. Until probably maybe eight years ago, I put on a time lapse of me painting sunflower. Actually, it was sunflowers in that same yellow vase. You can find it on my YouTube channel. You kind of have to scroll down because it was uploaded maybe 2015 16, I can't remember, but it was, it has over 100,000 views, and that just kind of shocked me. So I just decided, you know, maybe it's time to work this a little bit better. So probably for the last five, six years, I've worked the YouTube channel a little bit better.
Laura Arango Baier 35:37
Yeah. I mean, I just see it's monetized, so it's also giving you a little bit of money on this?
Elizabeth Robbins 35:42
Well, yeah, but what's interesting is, I never did have it monetized until because I hated the I hated the commercials. I hated those, you know, skip ads kind of thing. So I thought, I'm not doing that. I, you know, I don't. I just didn't like that. But then YouTube went and and added ads to content, even if you weren't monetized. So at that point, I said, Well, if you're going to add ads to my content, then I'm going to, I'm going to start getting monetized, you know? So that's why that's that decision happened.
Laura Arango Baier 36:13
Yeah, that's awesome, though. And do you find that your how, like, how is your YouTube channel affected your sales, and also your online course sales,
Elizabeth Robbins 36:23
I think it's been really helpful for people. We've certainly got and students to join, inspired to paint from the YouTube channel. But what's also interesting to me is how many people come to my site from Pinterest, and I that's another, you know, social media that I I hadn't worked at all very well, but when I started looking all the analytics that I get, I'm like, wow, there's a lot of people coming from from Pinterest, so maybe it's time to start working this Pinterest thing. But yeah, the YouTube has definitely, definitely helped the exposure of the teaching aspect. I don't know if it's if it's gotten, gotten me collectors to buy my work, but it has certainly increased my student base. Awesome.
Laura Arango Baier 37:14
Yeah, and I did also hear that that Pinterest is actually one of the biggest platforms for people to actually, because, so it's not really social media, and actually it's because, yeah, I guess person, no, but, but it functions very similarly. But what's cool about it? And I spoke to a Pinterest person once, and she mentioned it to me that Pinterest is actually like the second or third most visited platform online. And specifically, people go on Pinterest to shop or to get inspiration, right compared to Right exactly. So I'm not surprised getting so much traction through there, because, yeah, Pinterest is one of the biggest sales, I guess, places. And actually too for paintings. A lot of people will also buy paintings through there. So that's something to consider.
Elizabeth Robbins 38:03
Yeah, well, I, I certainly go on there for inspiration. So, you know, it is a good platform.
Laura Arango Baier 38:08
I go there every day, yeah, um, that's really awesome. And then, um, I know that, you know, the at least selling flowers and still lives in general, I think the two biggest markets I could say for paintings are landscapes and still lives. Those are like two top selling that I have seen. How have you found your niche, so to speak, how have you been able to find your ideal buyers.
Elizabeth Robbins 38:43
Well, I think it's important to search out galleries that carry like paintings or like artists. And not that you want to go into a gallery that has 10 still life artists, but you want to, you want to search out galleries that like, I'm very much a representational artist, so I wasn't going to go to a very contemporary art gallery and say, Hey, carry my work. I'm really different. They're not going to like my work. So I think it's important to find that gallery that fits your style, and find a gallery that doesn't have 10 still life artists already. And I think it's also really important that you establish a that you are unique, that you are that your work is recognizable as you, and that you're not just a copy of somebody else, or you're just painting the kind of the same flair as somebody else. I think that's really important for a professional artist is to establish your own unique voice in your paintings. Because if they already carry three or four artists that paint like x, and you paint like X, you're not, they're not going to take you on. But if you're you're y, and nobody else paints like y, then. You know, you have a better chance of of getting into galleries or being seen and having collectors say, Oh, wow, I really like this artist. If that makes sense.
Laura Arango Baier 40:10
Yeah, it makes perfect sense. And actually that I now that makes me curious. Do you have advice for someone who's trying to find their artistic voice?
Elizabeth Robbins 40:18
You know, that's always a really good question where people ask, how, how? How do I find my voice? And I always say, You know what? You just it's like your handwriting. You don't find your handwriting, your you know, your handwriting finds you. And there was a point in time in my, you know, educational role, and I was, this is early, 2000s I was studying with a lot of people and and I would come home and I'd say, Well, this teacher says this, and then this teacher said, never to do that. But this teacher said to do it. And my husband finally said to me, you know, Liz, you're getting too many cooks in the kitchen. You just need to do what you do. And that rang true. And so instead of trying to paint like this person or paint like this person. I just, I just painted. And I think that's what people need to do, is they need to just get to the easel and just paint from their heart and not so much from their head. Because I think sometimes when we paint from their head, you're painting paintings, but when you're painting from your heart, then you're painting art, then you're creating art. So learn all of those things from the teachers that you're studying with, and, you know, figure out what works for you and what doesn't, but let go and let your heart take over when you're painting, and that's when your unique voice is going to show up.
Laura Arango Baier 41:39
Beautiful. That is very beautiful, and that is so true. It does take that vulnerability of opening yourself up. It's very important for sure.
Elizabeth Robbins 41:50
Can we talk stop just for a second for an edit? Because I have, I have to blow my nose. Oh, go for it. Gotta love allergies.
Laura Arango Baier 42:01
Oh, my gosh, are you allergic to flowers?
Elizabeth Robbins 42:06
Yeah, no wouldn't that be? Well, I, I don't know what I'm allergic to, but Pro, my cat is what I'm allergic to.
Laura Arango Baier 42:13
Yeah, okay, that would be unfortunate if you were allergic to flowers, that would be very ironic.
Elizabeth Robbins 42:18
I'd paint them anyway. It wouldn't matter.
Laura Arango Baier 42:21
Yeah, you'd probably just be there, like, taking an allergy pill every day.
Elizabeth Robbins 42:24
Yeah, for sure.
Laura Arango Baier 42:27
Oh, man, but yeah, that, yeah. I I really agree with that, and I love the comparison to handwriting. I've heard it a couple times, but I think it's one of the best comparisons, because you're right. I heard it a couple times, but I think it's one of the best comparisons, because you're right. I mean, we learned the same basic letters, but we all have a different way of expressing them. And also, I mean, if you can write like someone else, right, and you try to go into a gallery, the gallery already has that person, why would they want to work with you, right? So that that also ties into that aspect really well. And actually, since you do work with galleries, what how do you recommend someone to approach a gallery with their work.
Elizabeth Robbins 43:05
So I you know, things have changed drastically because of social media and the internet and but I think it's really important now if you're going to try and get into galleries, is to present yourself as a professional, even if maybe you're not quite there. I think it's important to present yourself as a professional. My My husband used to say, he says, Be a duck. And I say, What the heck does that mean? Be a duck? He says, calm on the surface and professional on the surface, but paddling, paddling like hell underneath. And so, so as you're you know, as you're trying to get into galleries, I think it's important to have a professional website. I think it's important to have professional business cards, a professional pamphlet, a professional portfolio. You need to portray that sense that you are a professional and not you don't even have to be doing it full time, but you need to at least give that sense that you are taking yourself seriously, so that that gallery will take you seriously. You can't just be a Sunday painter, let's say, and, and think that you're going to be selling in galleries. It's, it's a professional business relationship. It's, it's symbiotic. You know, they can't sell art without us, and we can't sell art without them. And and both sides need to run it like a business, and you need to run your art career like a business. And unfortunately, a lot of artists, you know, they're so right brained that they don't have the left side. And some people are fortunate that they have a spouse that, you know, runs that part of the business for them. I was fortunate that I got my dad's left side of my brain out. His brain and my mom's right side of the brain. So I have both the artistic and the and the business sense, but it is really important to be professional, at least look professional on the surface, even if you're paddling like hell underneath.
Laura Arango Baier 45:18
I love that. Yeah, your husband was a genius. That's a really cute way of saying you need to get yourself together. Yeah?
Elizabeth Robbins 45:25
He had a lot of great sayings,
Laura Arango Baier 45:28
yeah, oh, he sounds wonderful. And then also, do you have any advice, right for someone who wants to jump into this career full time?
Elizabeth Robbins 45:41
Advice? Well, let's see, have thick skin. You know you're you're going to be rejected a lot. You might have people not say very nice things about your work. And, you know, take constructive criticism for what it is, work hard, paint at the easel. Paint, paint, paint. That's the biggest thing. Just paint, paint, paint and then paint some more. Again. It goes back to, I always say that, you know, people think that, you know, if you're a professional athlete, and the and the Olympics are going on right now, Simone Biles, that girl doesn't just go to the gym on Saturdays and Sundays. That girl is at the gym every single day for probably 10 hours a day. If you are a concert pianist, you don't just practice the piano on Saturday or Sunday. If you're a professional singer, you don't just, you know, kind of sing a couple times a week. You You are at the gym, or you're at the piano, or you're singing every single day, practicing whatever it is that you do. And for some reason, painters, artists, painters, think that maybe you could just paint a couple times a week and become a professional and unless you're a savant, or, you know, somebody that's just out of this world that's not going to happen for the majority of us, you know, 99% of us, have to work hard. And I can tell you for a fact that I have, I have a very strong work ethic, but my worth work ethic and my determination, far out. Far out. Um, what's the word? Okay, yeah, my work ethic, my dedication and my love for my art form, far out measures my talent, and most of the people that I run around with, we're all we're all talented, but we have that dedication to the art form that if we're not painting, we're thinking about painting, where we are research painting. We're looking at how the light is affecting that tree or that flower or that mountain, it's just, it's non stop for us. It's almost, you know, it's an OCD Ness when it comes to being an artist. So that be prepared to have your life being taken over by painting. And that could be a blessing or it could be a curse. Just depends on on how you manage it, I guess, yeah,
Laura Arango Baier 48:24
Yeah. And I really love that you mentioned that, because I think there's so many people out there who shy away from his career because they think, Oh, I'm not talented. And the reality is, like you said, it is 99% hard, hard work and borderline obsession. There are people out there who, yeah, it's very rare to find someone who knows what they're doing immediately with painting. And I have met like, maybe one artist who's like that. Out of the hundreds that I've run into or seen, I Yeah, majority of us are just trying, trying our best and working at it. And the discipline, like you said, is so important, so important.
Elizabeth Robbins 49:04
Well, it's the whole 10,000 hour thing, you know, you you can get good at anything if you put in the 10,000 hours. And I've, I have certainly put in my 10,000 hours and then some,
Laura Arango Baier 49:19
Yeah, I mean, this isn't really a career, you know? It's a lifestyle, almost.
Elizabeth Robbins 49:26
It I tell people I love what I do, and I do what I love I have, but I have bills to pay. I have to make a living at it, you know. So it is really nice to get that paycheck, but we don't do it for the make a living at it, you know. So it is really nice to get that paycheck, but we don't do it for the money. That's the one thing about artists that maybe one or two out there, but the majority, 98% of the artists out here are in it for the love of the art form, and we're grateful that we can make a living and and pay bills. But if, if I. Wasn't making any money, I'd still paint. I would still paint.
Laura Arango Baier 50:04
Yes, that's the other side, right? That's, that's also what makes it, I don't want to say easy, but what makes it maybe a bit more manageable for most of us is that it is something we want to do in the first place. Um, and just, you know, getting a paycheck from it is the cherry on top, because I if I would also do it, not for free, necessarily, but I would just do it for myself, selfishly, you know, like I love it.
Elizabeth Robbins 50:34
It. It is a beautiful life being an artist and but it also has its downsides as well. You know, we are very sensitive people, and you don't take negative comments very well. It's this high and low, this roller coaster ride, you know, like, this month has been an incredible month. I've had all the galleries have been selling paintings. It's just a great month. And so like, you're thinking, Oh, good, you know, I, I'm, I'm doing it, you know, I'm making a good living. And then you may go a couple months and not sell a single painting, and then you're like, nobody likes my work. Oh, or, you know, you win an award at one show, and then you get rejected the next time. It's just this, this roller coaster rides. So it does have its ups and downs, but we love it so much we just keep doing it.
Laura Arango Baier 51:27
Yeah, yeah. And that's another great point. It's not a very constant career. In that sense, it's not a constant paycheck like most other jobs. But the good thing is, you have, yeah,
Elizabeth Robbins 51:42
no, I say, we don't get a constant paycheck. We don't have, you know, company, health insurance, or a 401, K, in fact, who was, I was talking to Shanna, my business partner, yesterday, and about somebody who had made, like, I don't know, ten million on something, and I and we both said, Well, that is never going to be us. We're never going to be rich like that, but we're going to keep painting.
Laura Arango Baier 52:10
Yes, yeah. And it's so funny that you say that, because there are, I have met, people were like, Oh, I'm going to be so rich as an artist. It's like, if you want money, I don't think this is the career for you. You have to measure down your expectations a little more, because this is, I wouldn't say it's a humble career, but it is definitely more for the love than for the money.
Elizabeth Robbins 52:37
For sure, that is true, although I have, I have been very fortunate and have been able to make a good living. I'm very, I am very, very blessed that I've been able, I've been able to do it, and for whatever reason, I'm very grateful for that.
Laura Arango Baier 52:54
Yeah and yeah, it's, it's worth being grateful for it, because you, you can wake up at any time you want, basically, unless you have something else, you get up and you do your stuff and you're basically free.
Elizabeth Robbins 53:10
We, in fact, yesterday, I was thinking to myself, you know, I I need a normal day. I think I need to go shopping or go to a movie, because it's been a very long time that I haven't either been in the studio or in the garden working. I was like, I made a normal day. Like, what normal people do? I think I'll go shopping.
Laura Arango Baier 53:33
I know that feeling. I went to a mall yesterday, and I was like, whoa. What is this place?
Elizabeth Robbins 53:39
Well, this is what normal people do.
Laura Arango Baier 53:42
Yeah, exactly. Oh, it can, I guess it is such a, such an interesting, introverted career, though, to be a painter or an artist. So when you go on into the normal world, you're like, Oh, this is kind of interesting. And then your studio,
Elizabeth Robbins 53:58
Yeah, that's the one thing. If you're going to be a professional artist, you have to like being alone, because you are alone most the time. I That's one thing I excel at. I excel at being alone. I have no problem being alone. In fact, I spent my 60th birthday up at our cabin alone, and my friend Shanna, or her husband, says your Aren't you worried about Liz spending her 60th birthday alone, and he looked at she looked at him and said, Do you not know Liz? Liz is flying by herself.
Laura Arango Baier 54:28
So, oh, man, that's awesome, but at least also when you teach workshops, you're not alone. Yeah, which I wanted to ask you, do you have any upcoming workshops that you'd like to mention?
Elizabeth Robbins 54:39
I do? I have a the Scottsdale artist school in Scottsdale, Arizona. I've taught them. Taught there for a number of years. They're a great school. That's March 3 through the sixth, next year, 2025, they have a great venue, and so I'll be teaching there, and I tentatively penciled in, also in. The Mississippi in April, not quite sure the dates of that yet. Then I have my online art course with my good friend Shannon Coons, who's a landscape painter inspired to paint.com where we have over, I think we're over 200 instructional videos now on our site, on both landscape, still life, portraiture, animals. So we've got that's an ongoing class that you can sign up for, and it's, you know, there's no contract. There's, it's just month to month. You can cancel any time. But there's a lot of great information there, and we don't hold anything back. Shana and I, we, we give it our all and all of our our lessons. We share everything that we have with our students. We don't hold anything back.
Laura Arango Baier 55:46
Great. Yeah, and then, where can people find more of your work and also sign up for your online class?
Elizabeth Robbins 55:53
So just the online classes inspired to paint.com In fact, when we were talking about doing this, we started that before covid, we I had done an online course myself back in 2016 it was highly successful, just my six month course. And it was, it turned out wonderful. So we decided, Shannon, I would do it together. And we were walking one day. And, you know, I did like, let's call it inspired to paint. And because that's what we said, like, you know, what we want to do is we want to inspire to people. We want to inspire people, people to paint. And I said, Well, let's call it inspired to paint. And I thought, there's no way that domain is available. When I went home and googled it and was available, I couldn't believe it. It was just all meant to be. But we have four different memberships. You can either have an all access pass that includes everything we have, or there's a VIP pass, which is like, you get everything, but it's for like, a three, six or 12 month membership plan that's just a one time fee. Or you have a Robbins membership while you're just study with me. Or you will have a coons membership where you just study with Shanna. But our all access passes are most our most popular pass that most everybody joins. We do group critiques, business tips, concept lessons, full length lessons, product reviews, art history, all that kind of stuff. And then my website is ElizabethRobbinsfineart.com or Robbins Fine art.com you can find my work there. You can find it on Instagram. Elizabeth Robbins art on Facebook. Elizabeth Robbins art, and I've got about seven or eight galleries that represent me across the country. That's where you can see all my work.
Laura Arango Baier 57:33
Great, awesome. Well, thank you so much, Elizabeth for being on the show and for all of your awesome advice and for being so inspiring.
Elizabeth Robbins 57:44
Well, thank you so much for having me. It's just it's been a pleasure, and I just hope everyone is inspired to paint after this.
Laura Arango Baier 57:52
I mean, I sure am. Yeah.
Elizabeth Robbins — Paint from the Heart