Liesel Arden

I won my first art prize at 9 years old. I guess that experience was the first time I identified as creative and it helped me shape how I saw myself in the world. Where I could fit in. I've pursued creative projects ever since and then went to University to study Creative Industries because I could never choose between fine art, design and film. I think it wasn't until I'd left Uni that I realised that my end goal would be fine art.

Slowly and painfully (ha ha). No, but really nothing happens overnight. I worked in so many creative roles in film, design and marketing until I decided I was going to pursue my art professionally. 

During this time, working what felt like 100 jobs, I got to know an incredible established artist when working at a cafe and agreed to come and work for him as a studio assistant. Working for him taught me how to paint with oils in the old masters style and I gained a first hand understanding of what it's like to be a professional artist. After a couple of years working as an assistant I decided my first body of work would be a fundraising exhibition as a friend of mine had died of Motor Neurone Disease. I painted 30 portraits in 30 days of inspiring Australian people (like Wolf-mother and Mick Fanning). It was an incredibly terrifying and rewarding experience. It was gruelling trying to pull together all the painting, filming and fundraising in such a short time and I learnt a lot about what NOT to do. But it was a great achievement of combined forces with help from so many people who wanted to be involved. Things were going great for my career at this point.

And then... I fell pregnant and everything slowed down for a few very foggy years.

Motherhood is such a hard lesson in surrender and I struggled coming to terms with trying to juggle ALL THE THINGS. But parenting has taught me patience and I'm a much better person (and artist) now than I was before I had kids.

Taking the leap from (Mother) to (Mother + Professional Artist) is a BIG step. In fact it's more like an upwards spiral; lots of going around in circles but always moving forward. I think for me I just kept putting it off until not doing it was driving me insane. Then it's just a matter of making a goal (even though it may seem impossible) and getting some skin in the game so you can't pull out of it. I can't believe how quickly I reached my first big goal when I got over myself enough to just do it. You just have to keep showing up and taking action even if it's uncomfortable and it's not perfect. I think seeing what is possible and finding people who are doing what you want to do is key. Now that I know what's possible my goals are changing and I'm expanding into things that scare me even more (like writing a book) but nothing is ever as scary as that first step of committing to art as "the actual thing I do for work." That shit is scary. But amazing.

- Where do you find inspiration? 

My paintings are always inspired by experiences of wonder in the natural world. You know that feeling when you really sink into a space. You start to really see the details, feel the nuances of how it all connects together. That's what my paintings always come back to.