Poppy Balser — A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

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For today's episode we sat down with Poppy Balser, a Canadian painter with a deep love of the capturing the ocean and its wild nature in her work. She tells us about how she transitioned from a career as a pharmacist to become a full-time artist. She also discusses her early artistic influences, the gradual process of pursuing painting, and the importance of building a supportive community of fellow artists, quoting, "a rising tide lifts all boats". Poppy emphasizes the importance of being kind to yourself as you learn the craft and to take your time developing your skills before putting your work out there. She also gives advice for aspiring artists on the importance of having a consistent newsletter, marketing strategies, and overcoming challenges. She emphasizes the value of observation, patience, and perseverance when painting subjects like the ocean. Finally Poppy tells us about her upcoming workshops!

Poppy's FASO site:
https://www.poppybalser.com/

Poppy's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/poppybalser/

Poppy's Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@poppybalserart

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Transcript:

Poppy Balser: 0:00

I remember that art is not a zero sum game. I've had some experiences where people are like people are more wanting to preserve their territory than make opportunities for others, and the more we work together, and the more generous we are as artists all together, the better we'll all do, because as to tie it back to the water, a rising tide lifts all boats.

Laura Arango Baier: 0:28

Welcome to the bold brush show where we believe that fortune favors a 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 who are in careers tied to the art world, in order to hear their advice and insights. For today's episode, we sat down with Poppy Balser, a Canadian painter with a deep love of capturing the ocean and its wild nature in her work. She tells us about how she transitioned from a career as a pharmacist to become a full time artist. She also discusses her early artistic influences, the gradual process of pursuing painting, and the importance of building a supportive community of fellow artists, quoting a rising tide lifts all boats. Poppy emphasizes the importance of being kind to yourself as you learn the craft and to take your time developing your skills before putting your work out there. She also gives advice for aspiring artists on the importance of having consistent newsletter marketing strategies and overcoming challenges. She emphasizes the value of observation, patience and perseverance with painting subjects like the ocean. Finally, Poppy tells us about her upcoming workshops. Welcome Poppy to the BoldBrush show. How are you today?

Poppy Balser: 1:46

I'm great. Thank you for asking. It's it's great to be here. Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 1:49

it's great to have you, because you are essentially an expert in water. To me, when I see your paintings of water, of these beautiful ships with these gorgeous, rocky shores, I I'm in love. I'm in love, and I recommend for our listeners to go check out your work immediately, because, again, it is such a treasure to see someone who has dedicated so much love and time to one of the most difficult subjects I have ever attempted to paint or draw myself, so kudos to you for that.

Poppy Balser: 2:27

Gee, thank you very much. That's that's a really glowing intro. I appreciate that very much. Thank you. You're

Laura Arango Baier: 2:33

welcome. Yeah. And then, before we dive into your beautiful work, do you mind telling us a bit more about who you are and what you do? Sure.

Poppy Balser: 2:41

I am a Canadian painter. This is my second career, and I started, started painting when we when we moved back to a more rural area. I have husband and two kids, at almost adult kids, and like I said, we live in a rural area, very close to the ocean, because it's winter right now, I can see the ocean from my studio window when there's leaves on the trees. I can't but I, you know, very close to it. I'm a painter, and I spend most of my time painting or doing activities related to painting, like framing, prepping, marketing, all that stuff. That's me

Laura Arango Baier: 3:24

wonderful, and that is so lucky that you're so close to the sea. I mean, I think for any artist having their subject close at hand for free, essentially, is, Oh, I'm so jealous. Yeah, yeah, your model is nearby, yeah.

Poppy Balser: 3:41

Well, the ocean that I can see is a long tidal inlet. So when the tide's in, I can see the water when the tide's out, it's about five kilometers away from where I am, because it's a very long, flat expense, narrow, but flat that, yeah, the water comes in and out twice day. So that's the water I tend to paint has more rocks, so I have to actually, like, leave the house and get in the car, but it's 510, minutes to get there. Oh, I'm very lucky. Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 4:09

that's amazing. That is so amazing. And it looks like such a beautiful area, too, from, from what I've seen in your paintings, that, Oh, eye candy for the artist, which is great. Um, but you know what? I'm very curious to know, when did you realize that you wanted to follow the path of the artist?

Poppy Balser: 4:28

Oh, boy, there's two answers to that. I i always spent time making stuff as a kid, I grew up in the you know, I was, I was very young in the 70s, when and my parents really encouraged us to do create, all me and my siblings to do creative stuff. And so I did, you know, I wanted to be an artist when I was finishing high school, but reality, in the form of my father said, No, you you have to get a job. That will support you. You can't make it as an artist. And whether you know whether that was true or not, then it's not true. Now you can make it as an artist now. But I chose a different path, and went to school, became a pharmacist, did that for a while, and then when in 2000 when we moved to my husband's hometown, I started painting again. I'd bought some acrylic paints a couple years before, and I did one painting at the kitchen table, and I put them away again and and sort of, you know, didn't touch them until after we'd moved home. Somebody needed something painted. I was like, Oh, I can do that for you. So I got the paints out and I painted it for and I never put them away again. So that's sort of when I that's when I got back into painting. I just loved having a paint brush in my hand. I love making pictures. And after a couple of years, another friend of mine asked me to hang paintings in her pottery shop. And I was like, Yeah, sure, I can do that. So I did some paintings and and a couple of them sold, which was amazing. You know, I hadn't really thought about what that would feel like, but from there, I just kept painting and kept putting paintings in her shop, and yeah, just yeah, the rest is history.

Laura Arango Baier: 6:12

That's so serendipitous. Yeah. That is like, oh, yeah, sure, I'll do that. And then it just, you know, kind of like everything fell into place. Yeah, yeah.

Poppy Balser: 6:21

I sorry. No, you're good. Okay. I did have the example, though, that my, my dad used to paint before my brother and sister were born. He was, he painted, and I was, I was nine when my brother was born. So, you know, I, I'd seen him painting, and that was, that was part of my experience growing up. And my grandfather was a painter, pretty much from when they came to Canada in the 50s until he died in was it 2000 and something? But yeah, he painted. He painted all the way along. And so I had that example of being an artist in the family. So that really helped. I knew it was the thing that people did, and that sort of helped shape my path, too. So I love

Laura Arango Baier: 7:06

that it's a bit unusual to have picked becoming a pharmacist. I think that is so curious, because it seems, you know, from my perspective, it seems like a very, totally different career with little to no carryover in between the two. Would you say that there is maybe a little bit of carryover between the two, or is it just entirely different? That's that's

Poppy Balser: 7:28

a really good question. Nobody's asked me that one before, so that that's great. The reason why dad thought it would be good for me was because it's a it's a job that's in demand anywhere you can. You can, you know, you can work in the city, you can work in a small town. It's a job. It's job that a woman could do. He was kind of old fashioned, but yeah, and it would be one that would let me stop and have a family and go back to work. So, you know, it's a great profession, and I did enjoy it, but I liked painting better. And I realized there's, lots of good pharmacists that you know, it's I can be a better painter than I can be a pharmacist. So I made the transition over years. But as far as similarities between the two, the there is and there isn't in that the scientific training that I had all to do with, you know, do something, and then, you know, if I'm going to, if I want to test it, change one thing and do it again, slightly differently, that that's been very helpful in my painting process. I will, you know, I'll repeat paintings because it's like, okay, well, I, you know, I did this, and, you know, this part is okay, but this part not so much. Let me do it again and just change, you know, I'm just going to change the yellow I used or whatever, and see what happens if I do that. And the other thing is, being a pharmacist helped me become an excellent communicator. So when I do teach, I don't teach a whole bunch, but when I do teach, I'm, I I'm good at it. I can, I can figure out where people aren't hearing me and rephrase it so that they can sort of get the message that I'm trying to get to them. So I had a lot of experience in one on one teaching through being a pharmacist, just at the counter every day, and that's carried over into my artistic work.

Laura Arango Baier: 9:18

I love that, and I love how you mentioned, you know, using the scientific method a lot, because, you know, for you know, a layman who maybe isn't very learned, quote, unquote, in the complexities like chemistry or the sciences, it might be something they do without realizing it, but it is so much better when you know exactly what you're doing, right? You know you have your hypothesis, and you're going to go through these steps, and you're going to switch stuff around. And especially, I love that you mentioned that you repeat paintings, because there are so many people out there, me included, who have maybe had this incorrect thought of I painted it once, and that's it, like I can't do it again. Or, you know, it's you. Like, Oh, you know, it is what it is, and it turned out to be bad, and I'm not gonna try to fix it when you know, you do have this opportunity of, you know what I liked it, I think it could improve if I changed X, Y or Z. So that's a very excellent point. I don't think many people out there give themselves the opportunity to really play around and explore just one specific image like that, yeah, yeah. I think that's awesome. And then, of course, the communication aspect, obviously, a pharmacist has to deal with people every freaking day, answer the same five questions every time, which is funny, but yeah, being you know, definitely the clarity that you get from that communication and learning to be more clear with your communication, I can see how that could be so helpful for teaching, which is really awesome too. It's a it's interesting to see those little carryovers and how maybe they might not be totally related. But it's such a broad so it's a broad enough thing where, like it can actually carry through, which is great. And then, aside from, you know, your fascination with painting and never putting your paints away, why did you decide the ocean? Is it? For me, this is my subject. I love the ocean. When did that fascination first begin.

Poppy Balser: 11:22

So I grew up right by the ocean. I grew up in an old farmhouse on about 20 acres of land, and directly across the road from the house was the Bay of Fundy. And so when, even when I was little, I had a much less structured childhood than than kids do now, and I woke up with the sun. That's just sort of how I am. I'm a morning person. So when, when it got light out in the summer, I would be awake and ready to go and And sure, it drove my parents nuts, especially on the weekend, they'd be like, You know what? Just go outside. Go outside. Don't go in the water over your knees and come back when we ring the bell. Mom had a Swiss cowbell on the back porch, and she would ring it, and it traveled about half a mile. So when I heard the bell, I knew it was time to come home for breakfast or come home for lunch, and so that, you know, I'd go in the field, sure, but the ocean was more interesting because it being the Bay of Fundy, the tide rises and falls twice a day, and so sometimes the water level will be right up close to the road, and sometimes it would be 200 feet away, and there'd be all these rock structures that are uncovered and seaweed hanging over them, and there'd be crabs under the rocks, and, you know, clams to dig for, and driftwood and stuff that washed up by the tide. And it just, it was also fascinating that that's where I would go in the summer, I would go to the beach and come home at lunchtime and come home at supper time. So that's that's sort of the foundation of my liking of the ocean when we moved to my husband's hometown where we are now, it's a fishing community, and the view from downtown is out across a little bit of water to the fishing wharf. So there's all these very interesting fishing boats, and we've got Rocky, sort of rugged coastline that, as an artist, is fascinating to paint. But I just I, I've always liked being on the water. Our summer vacations were, were canoe trips into Maine on on a series of lakes called the Machias lakes. Not many people there. It was just, you know, us in a canoe, and not nobody else around. We take the canoe out into the ocean where we live, to and go fishing so and and, you know, just dangling my fingers off the edge of the, you know, off the edge of the canoe into the water, and wiggling in the water. It was just all, you know, I just love water. So that's, that's how I got there. Wow,

Laura Arango Baier: 13:50

oh my gosh. And then when did you, by the way, it sounds very idyllic. You know, the idea of you get up early in the morning and run out to the ocean, you hear the cowbell that is so precious. Those are some precious memories to have. And it also makes me wonder, when you first decided I want to capture this and paint. When did that happen?

Poppy Balser: 14:13

That's a good question. Let's see. So I started painting again in 2000 and the I was painting a sign for a friend, and, well, my sister in law, actually, but I was painting a sign for her. But then I finished the sign, I was like, Well, I want to keep painting. So I painted, you know, flowers in the house. I think the first plein air painting I did was my husband and I went down to the brook below where our house is, and we're building the house, helping build the house at the time. And this was Sunday. It was our day off. So he took his guitar and I took some paints, and he sat there and played the guitar, and I painted him a little five by seven of him playing the guitar, and for not knowing. I was doing. It's not that at all. That's that's not painting water, though. When did I realize I wanted to paint water? I guess, as as I expanded what I wanted, you know, as I was figuring out what I wanted to paint and and just experimenting with the experience of painting and and figuring out how, what, what's a paintable subject, and what's not? At some point, I painted a boat, and one of the fishing boats here in Digby, and, yeah, the boat was okay, but painting the water, the reflection of the boat and the water was like, Oh, I like this. This is fun. I want to do this again. So that might be where I where it started. I painted a lot of landscapes earlier. I still paint some landscapes. I paint snow scenes. That's what I'm doing right now. But I keep going back to the water and, yeah, it's, I guess, because when I comes back again to, you know, when I was kid, because we're always sort of what shaped us is what sort of drives us. Now, when I was a teenager, when I wanted, when I wanted some space, I go to the, you know, the beach where I used to play, and I'd walk along the shore, like for an hour or two, and then walk back, and whatever teenage angst was working in, my brain would be settled down by the time I got home. So I've always found the shore a place of, I don't know if comfort is the right word, but a place of a place to sort of shake the cobwebs out and and feel rejuvenated and refreshed. So I guess that's part of why the ocean goes into my paintings so much.

Laura Arango Baier: 16:37

Yeah, I love that because it also brings, you know, it brings to the surface the importance of also doing what you did, which is experimenting with different subjects, seeing what works out, trying this out, trying that out, and then finally, when you realize, hey, this is a subject matter that tickles my brain and I want to keep doing it. That's That's perfect. Because I think a lot of artists, they try to, you know, pigeonhole themselves into one thing immediately, without having explored enough, in my opinion, like they might be like, oh, I'll just do portraits. And I've actually interviewed a few painters who started with portraits and ended up with plein air, or ended up enjoying a completely different subject matter, which is perfectly fine, you know, it's, I feel like there's this push and pull between what an artist wants to paint and what they think they should paint, and how that might be holding them back. So, you know, hearing you say, Oh yeah, you know, I tried painting my husband, and then, you know, did some landscape, and then when I did this boat, I realized I didn't care about the boat. I cared about the boat. I cared about the water, right? That's, yeah. That was a huge, yeah. That's a huge point. And then now, you know those beautiful, again, those rocky stores that you paint with the mist of the water and everything. It's just so beautiful. I'm so happy you settled on the water, because I think you represent it so so well, so majestically. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Yeah, it's absolutely gorgeous, and I can understand why, also, and this is something very recent, I think that one of your paintings is going to the Royal Collection, right? Yeah,

Poppy Balser: 18:17

yeah. That's very exciting. Yes, it is. Do you want me to explain this?

Laura Arango Baier: 18:23

Yes, please. I want to hear about this because it was a thing. Well, it's amazing. It

Poppy Balser: 18:29

is amazing. And I'll backtrack a bit, so I'll tell you about the royal collection. And first of all, the Royal Collection is, at this point, the world's largest private art collection, and it's housed at Windsor Castle in London in the UK. And so what the way I found out about this was, when I was starting to paint, I took up watercolors a few years after the acrylics. And my husband at one point, he was reading the newspaper, and he was like, Oh, look at this. There's a watercolor symposium happening in another part of the province. Why don't you go? And so I went, and it was a transformative experience, really, because I was, I was hanging out with fabulous watercolor painters and learning from them all day. And then in the evening, they often had evening presentations. And I should say, this was put on by the can. Canadian Society of painters and watercolor, which is the National Society in Canada that represents watercolors. So the evening presentation that really that sort of caught my imagination was by this fellow, Anthony Batten, who was a past president, and he was telling the story of taking his painting to London in the year 2000 and the reason why he was taking a painting to London was because, first of all, to backtrack, in 1985 on the society 60th birthday, they assembled a collection of of 60 watercolors from their membership. Was a jury process. So they were the 60 best watercolors they could assemble. And they tried to find a home for this remarkable collection. And in the end, it they worked with the the royal collection in London, and they arranged to have the paintings go to the Royal Collection. So that was in 1985 for their 60th birthday in 2000 they sent another 15 to the Royal Collection. And this gentleman, Mr. Batten, was one of the artists whose painting was selected. So he and a number of other Canadian painters took their paintings to London, and he told this amazing, thrilling story of taking the paintings to to a show at Canada house in London, and they had an exhibition, and Prince Charles came. He's the king now, but Prince Charles came and met with each artist and spoke with them about their painting, and it just sounded so fabulous. And here I was, sort of as a starting out artist, listening to this, thinking, wow. And then, and then Mr. Batten said, he said, Now in the year 2025 we're going to send the last 25 paintings to the Royal Collection, and anyone who's a member of the Society, an elected member of the society, will be eligible to submit their paintings. So I thought, Oh, wow, that's when was this? 2009 so that's a long way away. That's 15 years from now, 16 years from now, boy, I hope I'm a member then. So over the years, you know, fairly quickly after that, actually, I did apply for membership, I became accepted as an elected member. And then last year, we had the opportunity to submit our paintings, and one, mine was one of the ones selected to go to London. So it's very sweet.

Laura Arango Baier: 21:53

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. That is so fun, and that is so cool that you know, like past you was sitting there in awe, and then now present you is like, it's happening. Yeah, I wanted that is so cool. Yeah, it goes to show people have to, like, if, if you're dreaming big, right, or if you're, if you have a goal in mind, it's something you can achieve, right? If you're making the effort, if you're doing the thing you love the most, and just focusing on making beautiful work, which is exactly what you did. It is inevitable that all of these opportunities and doors will open in the way that they they did for you, right? Except you had a very focus. You were like, I want that's so cool. I want my work there. And now it is, which is, yeah, awesome.

Poppy Balser: 22:41

Yeah, luck played a part too, though it's, you know, it's it. Those of us who, who do have success, we have to remember that part of is just luck, being in the right place at the right time.

Laura Arango Baier: 22:49

Yeah, exactly, exactly which, again, you know, brings to mind the serendipity of how things have worked out for you with these, these very key moments. I feel like that's definitely one of those moments where, in hindsight, it's like, wow, that needed to happen. Yeah,

Poppy Balser: 23:05

yeah, yeah. If I, if I hadn't gone to that symposium, if my husband hadn't said, you know, go, I'll look after he said, I'll look after the kids. He said his mom would help. The kids. Had a great time. He survived. He did great but, you know, they had a wonderful time. I had a wonderful time. But if I hadn't gone, you know, I may never have joined the society. So many good things come. So, yeah, yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 23:32

And also makes, makes you realize how important it is to also, you know, if you have this interest, if you have this love of a specific medium, via watercolor, oils, etc, it is good to seek out societies and groups and anything that has to do with that medium, because you'll get those connections, and you'll see all these opportunities that you might not get if you're stowed away in your studio, right, which is something that many of us do, excuse me. Thankfully, the internet allows us to be more aware of these things. But I find that the physicality, yeah, the physicality of being out of society, you know, meeting other artists, and talking to other artists, seeing these events, it is so important. I believe you also had some work go to the sampa Gandhi club, right? Going,

Poppy Balser: 24:20

yes, yes, I had a painting there two years ago. The American watercolor society has their annual show in April, and I'm shipping a painting there very shortly. And it's, I'm delighted, because it's a plein air painting that's going which, for me, validates my plein air work. Makes me think, well, yeah, I really am a plein air painter. If I can get, if I can get one of my plein air paintings into this highly competitive show I'm doing, I'm I'm doing something right? Yes,

Laura Arango Baier: 24:47

yeah. And again, you know, the Selma Gundy club is also another really excellent painting society group club that anyone could apply for attempt to get in. Of course, like you said. That it's very prestigious. It's a little bit harder for people to really get in, but it's so awesome to be a part of it as well. So congratulations on all that.

Poppy Balser: 25:09

Thank you. I should say, though, it's, it's the American watercolor society showing at the Selma Gundy club. So I'm not, you know, I'm not a member of the Selma Gundy club, or I'm only an associate of the associate of the American watercolors society too. But that's, that's okay,

Laura Arango Baier: 25:23

yeah, yeah. So it's, yeah, that's another great point, because you could either become a member of the Selma Gundy Club, which, of course, there's a fee for that, which some people could pay for other people, you know, if they don't want to, they do provide these opportunities, like the one you're mentioning, where you can still apply for a show, even if you're an outsider of the club. So yes, that's awesome, yeah. And now, actually, I'm really curious. I'm going to backtrack a little bit, because I think it's very interesting. You mentioned earlier how you slowly transitioned out of your pharmacy job, right? Yeah. So how was that like for you to make that, that transition from pharmacist into full time artist, it

Poppy Balser: 26:09

was a very slow transition. It wasn't like jumping in head first. It was putting my toes in the water and taking very slow steps in. I was working full time and had two kids, and my husband and I were actually, he was managing a store, and I was his main staff pharmacist. So the way it worked for a couple of years was more or less either I was at work or he was at work, or the, you know, the kids were in daycare. We could both be at work, but often he one of us would pick the kids up at daycare, feed them supper, and then drive to the store and to the back door, and that one would go into the store, and the other one would come out of the store to take the kids home. So that that was that was tough for a while. So when I could, I went part time so that I wouldn't be working quite as much, and that gave me more time to paint. And I did keep my kids in daycare so that what, you know, I had a day or two a week so I could paint while they while they were at daycare. And over years, the work schedule got, you know, I worked less days a week and devoted more days a week to the art, until I got to the point where I was working about a day a week at the store, and painting the rest of the time, and putting far more hours into painting than a full time than than a full time job of 40 hours a week would ever take. And I'm sure most people listening, who are full time artists know exactly what that's like, because it's all the time sometimes, but I stayed working longer than I might have otherwise, just because I was still my husband's day off. He's also a pharmacist, so sometimes, you know, he would need to call me and say, I need to leave the store. Can you come to work? So I had to keep my license, and I had to keep myself up for that for, you know, a couple more years until we were in this, in the position where I could just say, okay, you know what? You don't need me anymore. You staff is fine. I'm out. And then that's when I really, you know, I was a full time artist couple of years before that, because of, you know, all the work that went into the painting side of my career. But it was a gradual transition.

Laura Arango Baier: 28:19

Nice 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. We also offer written resources, articles and a free monthly art contest open to all visual artists. We believe that fortune favors the BOLDBRUSH, 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 ink faso.com forward slash 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, okay, yeah, that's really great. Because obviously some people are afraid of making the jump right, because it can be a little bit like a shock. I like how you described it. Of you know, dipping your toes little by little, especially if it's cold water. You want to go a little slow. Some people might see it as directly, just cannonballing into cold water, which can be very shocking. Other people, you know, like you might benefit more from taking a little slow just reducing work hours, kind of like, you know, balancing it out, day job versus painting, and then increasing painting reducing day job, which is, I think it's very sensible way of going about it, especially when you're a person like you who's married, has kids and has all of these other responsibilities, aside from painting, for someone who might be single, lives alone and might be a little bit different, obviously, because they're less bodies to worry about in that sense, exactly. Yeah. So I think it's a very sensible approach to taper things off in that way. And for anyone out there who might be listening, who is in a similar position, they might also benefit from hearing that. Okay, maybe I could just taper things off little by little. So when you did start painting more and more, were you also selling more and more, did you maybe find a gallery representation? And that's how things ended up working out.

Poppy Balser: 31:27

Yeah, the gallery started sort of half happened early, maybe too early. When people ask you, what's one thing you would change? I might have put more time into developing my skills and less time into marketing at the beginning, just so that I was slightly stronger out of the gate as a painter, but because my friend had this pottery shop and wanted paintings for the walls, that sort of came very soon into my painting journey. And, you know, it was a little local pottery shop and a little local tourist town, so, but it gave me the that gave me the confidence to, you know, keep painting. And shortly after that, I did approach one of the nicer galleries in the next town over, and he took my work, and it was great. That was, that was really, that was a real boost for my, sort of, my confidence. And I did. I was selling, I was selling off my website too. I'm trying to think when wasn't selling too much off my website at the beginning. I was blogging for a long time before I before I actually had it a website, website, and my first website was with bold brush. It was called Fine Art Studio online at the time, BoldBrush hadn't happened yet, but I started my website either late, like late, late 2009 or very early 2010 and that's when I had, that's when I had the website. And so from from there, sales came slowly, but they did come. And it was, it wasn't a question of put a website up and people will just automatically come buy your work. Having the website meant I had a place to sell paintings from, but I had to get those paintings in front of people. I couldn't I had, I had to direct people to the website. I had to have a way to get them to it. So having, you know, having work in a gallery helps with that, because then people are like, Oh, I wonder, you know, I wonder what else they have. I think I lost thread of your question,

Laura Arango Baier: 33:42

oh, when you're totally good? Okay, I had asked about when you started making like, more money like from your like, if you started working with gallery, or if it was just, you know, you selling online, yeah, did mention, very interestingly, that you thought you worked with the gallery too soon. Yeah,

Poppy Balser: 34:02

well, I know I don't, I don't regret working with with my Potter friend, because we were a really good fit at the time. I just sometimes I wonder if I should have, and maybe it was even before, before the gallery that I, you know, spent too much time blogging in like this was when blogging was big. I spent too much time writing my blog, and I should have taken that time and needed more. But yeah, yeah, I guess I don't have that much of my regret. It's just something I wonder. You know, could I what would have happened if I'd done that differently?

Laura Arango Baier: 34:46

Got it? Yeah? So basically, you were able to transition out of your pharmacy job slowly, thanks to online sales and then working somewhat with the gallery, yeah? Well,

Poppy Balser: 34:57

yeah, by the time I left the pharmacy job, that was. Actually 2018 when I, when I worked, I worked my last shift in December of 2018 and then 2019 I just didn't renew my license. It was great. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. So I was in, I was in several galleries by that point. So yeah, that. And there were a couple of years like 2013 1415, about half my sales were from my website. Half my sales were from galleries. After that, slightly more sales from the galleries, just because I was doing better at galleries, and I had I had a new one in the states that was doing really well. So it wasn't that my online sales had dropped, it was just that my gallery sales were doing better. So I was certainly doing well in terms of relatively well in terms of sales, before I walked away from the pharmacy job completely.

Laura Arango Baier: 35:52

Oh, that's great.

Unknown: 35:54

That is so cool. Yeah, and well,

Laura Arango Baier: 35:57

right place, right time, right preparedness, which you mentioned earlier, yeah, that that's really awesome, because I like also that you mentioned that you had your website, right? That I think that's one of the things that, you know, a lot of people might think, Oh, I just have my social media. I just have this. But it's nice for people to see that you're taking it seriously, that you're a professional, that you have a website, that you have your biography, that you have your work in a professional way. And also the added bonus that you know, obviously, on the Faso site, your personal Faso site, you can make direct sales, right? Which is really useful. And it's, again, it just shows that you're taking it seriously and you're being professional about it, which is one thing. The second thing is, I love that you mentioned how slowly your sales. It wasn't that you dropped your sales on your site. You just had more on the galleries, which is really great, too. And again, that's something else the galleries take into account. Is, you know, if you're a professional, you have a website, but the gallery is going to look at that too, which is really important point, yeah. And I want to mention the part about blogging, because you are actually a bit of a newsletter lady. I love newsletter people because they you guys know the truth about it, and I think a lot of people might have in my opinion, I think a lot of people don't realize how powerful newsletters can be for sales and for connecting with fans. So do you mind telling us about how you handle your your newsletter and how you keep your readers? So

Poppy Balser: 37:40

okay, this is going to take a while, but that's good. Yeah. So I, I got my Faso website in early 2010 and the reason why I did was, honestly, because of the fine art views newsletter, which had been, had been going for quite a while, it's and it was delivered into my in my email box. I think it was every day for years and years. It was every day. And mostly it was useful stuff to artists. But every now and then the useful stuff for the artist was discussing how to have a website, how to build a website. What you know, what sort of website you need to have, what's, what's useful on a website, all this stuff. And, you know, they were, they were, they were general information which was useful, but it also was Fine Art Studio online saying, this is, you know, this is how we do our websites, and this is why we think it's important for artists. And it totally worked. So I bought the product from the newsletter. And so I got my website early 2010 and almost immediately started a newsletter with 11 people, which was my brother, my sister, my mother, my father, and about five or six other people. And I was not super regular and sending it at the beginning, but I would, you know, when somebody said, Oh, I like your I like your work. How do I find out more? I'd be like, I have a newsletter. I send it out. Do you want to go on my list? So I added people gradually over time. So I started with 11, but then I then I reached out to people that I had sort of like a, you know, any sort of relationship with, where I thought they they might be interested in the fact that I'm now painting. So I invited them to join my list. And then I probably had 50 or 60 people. Over the years, I found different ways to draw people to my my to my website and to sign up for the newsletter. And I see that as the most important tool, honestly, in my artist business, outside of working with galleries, having the website, having the newsletter, that is the biggest tool that I have, that drives, drives people to come see what I'm doing. And some of them buy paintings do. Uh, you've mentioned social media, and the problem with social media is what we put on social media, we don't own that. We don't own the connections that we make through social media. You know, I left, I left Twitter. Not going to call it x, I left Twitter months ago, a few months ago. And one of the things I miss the most is, you know, there's this one British artist who I only ever found, her posting her stuff on Twitter. And, you know, when I went to her website at the time, when I was leaving, there was nothing on her website. I was like, Oh man, how am I going to figure out, you know, what she's paying because I just love her work so much. Um, since then, I've gone back to our website, and she does have stuff on our website now, which is great, but you know, she was putting her stuff on Twitter, and if I wasn't on Twitter, I didn't see her stuff, and i None of us want to be in that situation where people can't find us. But our website, we own our website. We own what we put on it. We're responsible for what's on there. We control what's on there. We control what people see. If somebody comes to our website, they don't have to go through an algorithm of, you know, what's popular, they're going to see what I, as the artist, put on my website, because that's what I want them to see. So that's why I'm focused on the newsletter and and even my when I post, I have never sold much on social media. I don't know why. I just it just never seemed to work for me. So rather than try and chase those sales, I would just post stuff and say, hey, you know this is this is my painting. If you want to learn more, go to my website. There's a newsletter sign up page. That thing on the bottom of every page of my website, and occasionally on social media, I'd say, hey, you know, if you like this stuff, I have a newsletter sign up. I do that like every few months, and so, you know that helped guide people there. I did some activities to help expand my list. Let's see. So in in 2012 I decided to do a daily painting experiment. And I my kids were still kind of little, so I couldn't, I couldn't do it for like, years on end. So I said, Okay, you know, two months before Christmas, I'm going to do 60 paintings in 60 days, and I'm going to charge $60 for them. And so I ran an ad in the local paper, and I probably put it on social media that I was doing this, but the only way to get to find out about the painting was to be on my newsletter list, because I emailed out the pictures every I do my painting, and I'd email it out through my newsletter every day, and if they did, if it didn't sell the first day, the price would go up, like it went up to my normal price. So I don't remember the numbers, because it was a long time ago, but I had a huge growth in my newsletter list from that, because people would tell their friends, oh, my god, I just bought this painting for 60 bucks. And you know, this is how you find out. Sign up for her newsletter. And that worked. I did that for three years, four, three or four anyways, and it was, it was very successful. I also went to a local trade show and put up a little booth with some of my paintings and some note cards, and I had a draw for a painting. And anybody that wanted to, you know, the entry form said, sign up for my emails and get a chance to win this painting. So they would write their email address on the little paper. And I went home with 150 papers, and I entered them all in my system as as new subscribers. So there's all sorts of stuff you could do to get more names on your list.

Laura Arango Baier: 43:40

There are a lot of key things you mentioned in there that I really like. I do love that you mentioned something important, which is that, you know, social media isn't something that you can rely on completely, right? Because one like you mentioned the algorithm to the changes in something like, for example, in a few days, Tik Tok is getting banned, right? So if you have artwork there, it's banned in the states now. So now what right? The exactly, your website is probably not going to get banned, right? That is the landing site. That is where people go. That is, yeah, but I highly doubt that a personal website is ever going to get taken down, or is ever going to go through those after effects of being so tied to the performance of a different company, right? Yeah, yeah. So it's a lot easier to have that. And I love that you mentioned too, and you've mentioned it a couple times throughout the interview, actually, is local things, right? Okay, local trade show, your local painting society, local could also just be the country, but you you get the idea it's important to also or even the first gallery you worked with, right? Your local pottery shop, friend, yeah, right, yeah. There are so many ways to start small. Uh, and grow from there, find some people who will sign up for your newsletter through there and not just rely on social media or or YouTube for that matter, because I know you have YouTube as well, which is really cool. Um, so I think, yeah, you made some really awesome points. And the call to action, of course, if you do post on social media, make it so exclusive that the people who actually care will go through the trouble to actually sign up because they care, and they'll go in check out your work, and you know, they are such fans of your work that they'll buy something. They'll keep on the lookout for things like how you mentioned daily paintings that get sold. So those are all really great ways to connect with your your viewers, listeners, readers, and then also keep them there, which is, how do you mind? If I ask go, how many people are on your newsletter list?

Poppy Balser: 45:56

Either trying to remember, I think it's either high 1700 or low 1800 Yeah. So that's yeah, it's grown. It took. It took 14 years, but it did, yeah, yeah, so and

Laura Arango Baier: 46:13

go ahead, yeah, no, I was gonna say that. It's probably very steady too. There are very few people that unsubscribe, in general, to newsletters,

Poppy Balser: 46:21

yeah, I watched, I do watch to see sort of, and I don't get all wrapped up in the I used to be, you know, very statistics, heavy on just, you know, how many people click on this one, how many people click on that? Yeah, but I do, you know, I do tend to lose one or two, maybe as high as five, sort of per newsletter, but that's not very many. And you know, some of those are probably people switching email addresses, and if they don't want to, if they don't want my newsletter, then that's okay. It frees up a spot for somebody else to take. More or less. Yeah, exactly, yeah. And

Laura Arango Baier: 46:56

in general, I did hear that the statistic for artists newsletters, their open rate and their maintenance rate. Like, if someone subscribes, it's it's usually very high open rate and very low unsubscription rate, especially if it's a fan of your work, right? It's not going to be some random person from the internet who has no idea who you are. No one's going to do that. Yeah, it's usually a person who actually cares. So again, that's an excellent, excellent marketing tip for our listeners. Pay attention to your newsletter, and then how often do you send one out? Like, what? How do you recommend for an artist just tackling a newsletter? Sure

Poppy Balser: 47:36

that that goes back to the other part of your your last question that I didn't answer. How do I keep people engaged so and that's sort of all, one together. Answer together. It really helps to be disciplined. So I mentioned at the beginning, I sort of sent it sporadically, and then I tried to send it every few weeks, but I realized when you do that, time slips away and you're like, oh shoot, I meant to send a newsletter last week, darn it. So at some point, and I don't remember when, but it was years and years ago. I said, Okay, I'm going to send it every week. And what day am I going to pick? It should be early in the week, because at the end of the week, people are rushing to get their work done, if you know, if they're reading emails at work, they're not going to have time. They're going to feel like, oh my god, tomorrow's Friday. I got to, you know, I can't read this right now. I'll read it next week, and then next week it's deleted. So maybe Monday. Well, Monday's off and a holiday. Let's do Tuesday. So I picked Tuesday, so I send it every Tuesday. Tuesday is newsletter day, and I know it's newsletter day, and I know it's coming every week. So and people also know it's coming on Tuesday. So you know some people that tell me that they they look forward to it every week, which is lovely. I'm kind of round about here, but so, so it goes. So I send it every week, but because I know it's coming, I'm as I'm working in the studio or painting outside, I'm thinking about, Okay, what's going to go on my what go on my What? What can I put my newsletter next weekend? So as something happens? Oh, okay, that that can go in the newsletter. And usually I'm just sending a picture of a painting I've done, or a few paint, you know, a couple of paintings that I did in the last week, little story about them. You know, maybe I write about, you know, I don't so much now write about how I painted it, but more why I painted it, or what I was thinking about when I painted it, or what happened, you know, go out and free up my paint brushes and end up painting with a stick. So, you know, that happened only happened once. But anyway, it was a very snowy scene, so I could get away with thick gobs of paint. But anyways, that's and that was oil, not water color. That's an aside. But you know, when something fun happens, it's like, oh, yes, I've got something good for the newsletter. But the rest of the time, it's like, Okay, I've got this painting. I'm happy with it. I'm going to tell them why I'm happy with it. I'm going to tell them, you know, sort of what, you know, what made me want to paint this scene. So that sort of stuff goes in there. I. And as far as keeping people engaged, I answer them when they when they reply and say, Hey, I really like your painting. Sometimes is as simple as, thanks very much. But I do try and reply to each and every one, because that way they know I'm there and and, yeah. So that's some of what I do to keep people engaged.

Laura Arango Baier: 50:20

Those are that's all very important. Because, on the one hand, you know you're obviously, by scheduling it for yourself, you are making sure that it's happening, first of all, and second of all, I like that. It also forces you to self reflect a little bit like what would be worth mentioning to my readers, what would be interesting to them, that I found interesting, especially in the aspect of how you mentioned instead of the how you made something, the why, the more, I guess, complex part of the creative process, rather than the banal, like, I use this color and that color, which could also go in there, but it isn't as important as telling the person why a subject mattered to you and what beauty you saw in something they can then see as well, which is really cool. It's the, again, the self reflection aspect that I think a lot of, especially a lot of collectors, really like to dig into because they know nothing, or next to nothing, usually, about how something is done, but that's not really what they're concerned about, right? They're more concerned about the why and the personal vision that you have as an artist, which is what the reason why they buy, you know, like, why did this artist do it? This is beautiful. I love it. I want to know why it speaks to me personally. And there you go. You have that in your newsletter, which is great. I commend you. I don't think I would have the discipline to do a weekly newsletter. Oh, man, I think I can do a monthly one, but they're

Poppy Balser: 51:53

not long. I should say they're not some Well, some of them get kind of long, because I do enjoy writing and I tend to ramble, but it's, it's, it's one topic or one theme per newsletter. So it's not like, you know, this exhibition, that painting, that workshop, and you know something about what I had for dinner. It's, you know, these three paintings that are connected somehow. And if they're not connected, like if I did an oil painting of a, you know, of a rock scene and some watercolors of people hanging. I would either write about the people hanging or the water scene. I wouldn't write about both in the same newsletter. It took me a while to to evolve that. So I'm sure if you go back to the archive, you can find, you know, things that have, you know dogs, breakfast of topics. But I find that helps simplify the process for me and hopefully makes them easier to read. Because I know nobody you know, if you, if you look at a newsletter, an email that you get, and you're like, Oh, I know this person has a lot to say, you might not open it as soon, right? So that's one thing. And I had another thought, based off what you said, and I have to just get what it was. Oh, the being disciplined. I on my, on my recurring to do list on Monday. I have a, have an item that says newsletter content, and I try and have the newsletter written on Monday. But if it's you know, if you know today's what is today Friday, if I get off this and think, Oh, I wanted to put that in my newsletter, I will go to the entry for Monday and next to content, write a reminder to myself to include whatever it is that I just thought of, because when I sit down to write on Monday, I won't remember, but if I've made a note, you know, remember to mention the BoldBrush podcast. When I go to write on Monday, I'll look at my list and be like, Oh yeah, I wanted to write about that few that makes that easier. So that's part of the discipline and staying organized. And,

Laura Arango Baier: 53:50

yeah, yes, yeah. And also, like you mentioned, making it so that you know is going to be easy for you to do, right? If I know maybe one newsletter a week might be a little too ambitious for me, let's try maybe one every two weeks, or one every month. Yeah, and go from there, because there are, I feel like a lot of people who do their newsletters, it ends up not really mattering how often they make it anyway, what matters most is the content. Of course, content is important. And then also the, I guess one that is the content. And then also the the fact that people actually open it and read it, which will happen no matter what, which is something to keep in mind. Yeah,

Poppy Balser: 54:37

I should say, in the summer I go to every two weeks, because summers are just busy, and my audience is busy. I assume they are. Yeah, I haven't pulled them, but I assume they would sooner be doing something that's not sitting on the computer and read or maybe reading on their phone. So I go to every every two weeks in the summer, and I was wrestling at the beginning of the year. I was this year I was wrestling. Do I go every two weeks to some. Will find my life. And I was like, No, I've got, you know, I don't want to get out of the habit. I want to just keep it going. And maybe they'll be a little shorter this year than they were last year so far. That's not the case, and that's okay, yeah. I mean, I still enjoy it. So, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 55:14

And it's also, like you just mentioned, it's a great new year's resolution for any artist out there who's listening and maybe is thinking, this is the year I do a newsletter? Well, yes, this is a year. Yes, definitely, especially if we follow your tips. I hope I'm helpful. You are very helpful, absolutely, and I'm going to ask for some more help, because I want to ask you for some advice. So if first, first first advice I'm gonna ask for if someone wants to paint the ocean or any body of water, what is the number one tip that you could recommend to someone who's never tackled it before?

Poppy Balser: 55:52

Oh, boy. Um, go look at it. And I'm not being I'm not being a jerk here. Um, spend some time looking at the water you want to paint and take a sketchbook, take, you know, pencil and paper and colors, if you've, you know, if you can. But don't expect, when you go looking at the water, trying to figure out how to paint it. Don't if you're going to sketch, don't expect to end up with something that that will be a finished piece of art. I guess what you're doing is taking field notes. It took so long to get so that I could stand in front of a body of water, especially if there's any surf at all, and figure out how to get that on paper or on Canvas, because the stuff keeps it keeps moving. Even when the water is still, a breeze will come and all the reflections will look different. So spend a lot of time looking and and just thinking about the shapes. You know, pencil and paper is great just drawing the shapes and getting a feel for how to constrain this huge view in front of you, this little part of the view in front of you, and make it into a 2d image. It's really hard. You have to find the shapes that would fit on your paper that tell the story of what you're painting. When I'm doing when I'm out at the shore and I'm trying to paint think waves. What I end up doing is drawing in, you know, figuring out the shapes of the rocks, and then watch the water for quite a while, trying to figure out which, which shape of a wave I want to, I want to capture. So I'll watch a wave come in and be like, okay, that it sort of makes a it makes a curve like this. So I'll draw the curve. And then I have to wait for the next wave that looks like that. And they tend to repeat. But I have to sort of wait and get a feel for, okay, all right, so that's the shape of the wave. What happens to the foam as that like I'm looking at this part, but if I'm looking at this part like the, say, a roll of foam coming in, I'm not looking at the foreground foam in front. So then I have to take a pause and say, Okay, I'm not going to watch the way it's breaking. I'm going to watch what's happening in the foreground, in front. And there's all that information that you have to learn and assimilate, and trying to paint it from scratch, having never painted it before on location, it will just drive, drive you around the bend. So take a sketchbook, do little color notes. I can share a picture. I don't know if you can see this or not, but I can. I'll send you photos. But this was just me trying to get the colors of the water that I was seeing, not trying to make a picture. There was no composition there. It was just the colors of the water and some notes, sort of just getting a feel for it. Take lots of pictures, but take video, especially if there's waves, because the video will let you watch what happens. You can go, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, and you always miss the moment that you want to get. But if you have a video, you can put it in slow motion. You can watch what happens as the water tumbles. You can watch what happens to the rocks when the water breaks over it, you can learn a lot from that. And there's nothing at all wrong with painting seascapes in the studio until you figure out how to, how to go out to the shore, you know, if you do, if you practice in the studio, like, okay, so this is, this is how I would paint that little bit of water. Then when you go out and you're like, oh, this, this scene today looks kind of like the water I painted last week. I can take the skills that I got from practicing in the studio and incorporate that into you know, now I have a vocabulary of of painting knowledge that I can use to express what I'm seeing in front of me. Does that help? Yeah, tremendously,

Laura Arango Baier: 59:43

tremendously. I am going to point out something really interesting too, is that you mentioned observing the ocean, yes, and honestly, it's in a very scientific way, because you're trying to dissect this, right? And you know, this takes back. You, having been a pharmacist and having been in sciences, very much, you know, hypothesis, you know, attempt to fix a problem and then come up with a new solution each time. Observing is such an important aspect of the scientific method, and I love that you bring it up, especially the video, because I actually did that recently when I was looking at the ocean, because I was trying to understand it. Just it moves so fast. The ocean just goes so fast that you blink and it's totally different, totally gone. And the thing you thought you saw, you start doubting, did I see that? Or was that just my brain making stuff up, which, you know, I did take a video, and I scrolled through it to see exactly what the wave was doing. So I think that's very genius. And comparing it, you know, to studio work versus on site, it kind of, you know, it kind of reminded me a little bit of, like, you know, running on a treadmill versus running, like, on an actual, like, trail somewhere, yeah, where you can try to get, you know, the feel for your speed and how things go before tackling, yeah, you know, a marathon even. Because I think a lot of people think, Okay, I'm going to run the marathon without any trainings. Whoa, well, there, buddy, you're going to hurt yourself, yeah? And you're going to

Poppy Balser: 1:01:11

hurt your ego, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's, it is humbling to watch the water and try and paint it, and it's a long, long journey to get it was, well, for me, maybe for somebody else, that isn't, but it's a long journey to get from never having painted an ocean scene to standing in front of the ocean and painting it in a way that I felt satisfied with what I did, like it's only, it's only been a few years that I feel like, yeah, I can, I'll go and I'll be able to, I'll be able to make, maybe I'll be able to make something, you know, I regularly get, you know, the ocean eats my lunch, and it's just like, Yeah, you think you know how to paint rocks and water. Let me show you, because it's distracting too. I'll be, you know, I'll be working away painting. Oh, look at that. Or, you know, an attractive boat goes by. Or, you know, there's a bird that I sort of watch for, honestly, oh, shoot, I missed the, you know, the tide's gone out, or the lights changed. Or, you know, I've lost my focus, and I forget that, you know, really, what I wanted to keep was that one bit of white paper I've painted a rock through it, or whatever. So, yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 1:02:19

yeah, it takes a especially the plenary, and it takes so much focus, and it takes speed, which, of course, if you're a beginner at the water, that speed isn't going to be there. It really isn't. You're either you sacrifice one thing for the other, right? If you're aiming for speed, you're going to sacrifice maybe the quality, or maybe you're going to sacrifice the colors that could have been there. There's a there's a lot of give and take that comes from tackling such a difficult subject in, you know, from life. So yeah, there's no shame in studio work. There's no shame in referencing images. They are a tool. They are learning tool. And excellent, excellent advice. I love that. And then I actually wanted to ask you for some more advice. And what advice would you give to someone who wants to become a full time artist?

Poppy Balser: 1:03:12

Oh, boy. Well, going back to what I said earlier, and then retract it somewhat, I to do the best painting that you can. You know, spend time, spend time focusing on making the best paintings you can. And even if that means and maybe this. I don't know if this is good advice or not, but don't be in a hurry to hit publish. Wait. You know, to finish your painting. Think about it for a couple of days before you put it out there. Because when, when we're new at it? Well, I found I varied between thinking I know nothing and thinking this is the best painting I've ever done, this best painting anybody's ever done. I'm so proud of it. And later I'd look at it like, Oh, what was I thinking? So, you know, give yourself some grace to don't beat up on yourself. Be kind. Be as kind to your own efforts, as you would be to anybody else's. But if you're making the transition to full time artists, once you once you have a level of proficiency that you think is suited to your market, depending on where you want to what kind of art you're trying to do, and where you want to sell your paintings. So your paintings. Reach out to other artists in the area. You know, we talked about local. Get to know, you know, go to even before you're ready to take the plunge. Go to local art openings. Go to local art events. Meet, you know, meet the people in the. Area, because they'll be, they'll be a resource for you, and you can be a resource for them, you know, you can help them. They can help you. They can give you some good ideas. They can they can refer you to galleries or or send you, you know, give you an idea of what galleries to deal with or not to deal with. The best gallery I was in lately. One of my artist friends said, Hey, you should really reach out to, you know, such and such a gallery. I think you'd be a really good fit there. I know him. I'll tell you. I'll tell him about you. And you know, I was there for several years and did really well there. So make artist friends and join some societies, start locally, and just remember that art is not a zero sum game. I've had some experiences where people are like people are more wanting to preserve their territory than make opportunities for others. And the more we work together, and the more generous we are as artists all together, the better we'll all do. Because as to tie it back to the water, a rising tide lifts all boats. So

Laura Arango Baier: 1:06:20

that's so beautifully said. Amazing, amazing. Yeah, that's very excellent advice. Every single thing you said. I think a lot of our listeners should really take it into account, especially the support side, because I think especially with social media these days. You know, just to input my two cents on it, there's a lot of unnecessary competition. Okay? It's okay to compete, right? It's totally normal. But just because someone seems to be doing better or seems more successful, it's not taking anything away from anyone else. And I think that's that's a misconception that a lot of artists, especially young artists might have they see it kind of like the typical job market, instead of seeing it as an artisanal appreciation that we can all share. So especially, I love that rising title of all boats reference, because it's so appropriate, so perfect, and it takes off a lot of pressure, too. I mean, everyone. And this ties back to when you what you said about, you know, having grace for yourself and the same that you would for anyone else who's maybe learning or maybe trying to figure things, things out, is you don't have to show any every, every piece you make. It's okay not to. I love that. I love that. And, yeah, it's it is a very inclusive, supportive environment, and it should be. There's no reason why anyone should act like they can step on anyone else for no good reason. Um, so, yeah, I really love all your advice.

Poppy Balser: 1:07:56

Can I add one more bit go for it? Yes, great. Don't get frustrated when you enter a painting into a show, or, you know, compete in a show, even if your painting doesn't get in, or you don't want a prize, but especially if your painting doesn't get in, it doesn't mean it's a bad painting. It just means that that judge on that day didn't see what they were looking for in that painting. I don't know. I used to find rejection hard, just like everybody does. But now, if I apply to a show and I don't get in, I know, I know, because I've lived it, that that doesn't mean it's a bad painting, because I've turned around more than once. And in fact, our Canadian watercolors society, their their national show, the last two years I haven't got in, and the paintings that didn't get in have both turned around like the from the year before and from this year have both turned around and won prizes elsewhere. So don't can I say this? Don't let the bastards get you down. You might have to cut that. Let me rephrase it. Don't get discouraged. I

Laura Arango Baier: 1:09:02

don't know. I kind of like the rated R version of that, you know, it is true. You have to have that, that strength to say, You know what? It's not me, yeah, and, you know, like you said, it's sometimes it's just not the right place for that painting. Because I've also heard of other people who they enter painting into a competition, and it didn't, you know, get anything the competition, but they sold it and it's doing great, or like it won another aboard somewhere else. So it is, oftentimes, like you said, it's a little bit of Right place, right time for even your paintings. So yes, yes. And you mentioned earlier that you also teach. Do you have any upcoming workshops or maybe online courses that are happening?

Poppy Balser: 1:09:52

I have, I have videos on my website that are streaming and unlimited. It's not, you know, you buy access to them. You can. Refer to them for a long time. I have no plans to take them down, and they're on painting water, incidentally. So it's a series of four videos on painting water. I will be doing a workshop in Canada as after the carsboro International plein air festival, which happens in June. And I don't think that's been published yet, but it's coming. And other than that, I just, you know, I'm just painting. I don't have a lot of workshops scheduled right now because I'm just, I'm I was heavily involved in the watercolor society, and that took a lot of my time. I was the chair of their education committee, so I was teaching adjacent, but I wasn't the one teaching, and I'm just enjoying not, you know, I'm just enjoying having a little more time to paint. So I yeah, I'm painting regularly and putting their results on my website. So,

Laura Arango Baier: 1:10:53

yeah, yeah. And then where can people see more of your work? Yeah, they

Poppy Balser: 1:10:57

can find me on my website. Poppy, bosser.com, and there's a lovely little newsletter. Sign up link at the bottom. I'm going to be blogging a bit more. You mentioned my YouTube channel. I It's been kind of quiet for a long time because video editing, as I know, you know, especially, takes so long. But I'm hoping to do a bit more of that as well. And, yeah, I just joined blue sky. So yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 1:11:26

do you mind telling me what blue sky is? Is it other social media platform, right?

Poppy Balser: 1:11:30

It is. It's a social media platform that is open source. From what I understand, it's open source, and it's not owned by anyone. It does not have a tech billionaire owner, which I like. So let it, give it a run and see what happens. Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 1:11:46

I'm also going to check that out. That's very interesting, yeah, but of course, as we mentioned earlier, website, yes. So absolutely

Poppy Balser: 1:11:52

yes, definitely, yeah. My last post on there was about how I'm painting every day, painting so every day in January, and a link to my website. Beautiful, that beautiful. That's how it

Laura Arango Baier: 1:12:05

works, yes, yeah. And I'll also be including all of your links in the show notes, so that, oh, thank you. Can go check it out. And then, if our listeners are, you know, watching the video, they have already seen some of your beautiful paintings, which is also really cool. So, yeah, yeah. So thank you so much Poppy for being such a delight and telling us all of these amazing stories.

Poppy Balser: 1:12:26

This has been a lot of fun. I really yeah, thank you. Oh yeah, this was

Laura Arango Baier: 1:12:29

great, of course. Yeah.