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2019: The Roundup

katieniceportraits

What a year 2019 was. It was the first year that being an artist has been my main job, which in itself is a massive achievement for me. I created the most art I have ever created in a single year AND I've taken part in the most amount of projects. So although 2019 was one of my most heartbreaking years, my art has never been stronger.


So here's my overview for 2019...


My year started off with a bang! Animals in Hats launched, I had my first ever solo show, and for someone who had just gone pro artist it couldn't have been timed better. I was finally feeling that my art was becoming recognisable as "me". And that the style I was developing was something I was truly loving. It was the first time creating a cohesive series, and I couldn't be more proud of it. It was around that time that I found more and more people taking notice of my art, getting in touch to tell me they loved it too and buying my pieces. It really was quite surreal at the time.



Because of Animals in Hats, and my new sense of what I wanted to be as an artist, I knew it was time for a bit of a rebrand. And so my new website was born. I created this site myself (along with Benji) and worked so hard on making it feel right. We worked on it for months to get the right look, and to make it work as seamlessly as we could. I adore the final site, and buying the domain www.katieniceportraits.co.uk was an oddly big moment for me.


Soon after my website was complete, this very blog was launched - something that I had always wanted to incorporate. Although the busyness of the last half of my year took over, you will start seeing an awful lot more goings on right here this year.



In between all this, I had another three shows up at Hartismere Hospital, Hadleigh and The Wayland Dragonfly Gallery which although I got very few snaps of, introduced me to a few more people who gave my artwork a new home.



My commissioned pieces- which started this entire journey were still going strong. Scrappy, Chunk and Ben, were all created amongst the hectic-ness of the art exhibits. Drawing these was much like going back to my roots, and played a wonderful part in keeping me sane.



At the beginning of the summer I was part of the Eye Sheep Art Trail. A project run by and raising money for The Blossom Charity. I was one of the twenty-three artists invited to decorate a sheep which were dotted around the town of Eye for the entire summer. Hundreds of people visited the flock and met 'Bumble" who was the sheep I decorated sponsored by the East of England Co-operative. The amount of work that went into the whole project was unbelievable and it was amazing to be a part of it. You can read more about "Bumble" in my previous blog post here.


In addition to creating a piece of the trail, I also donated an exclusive Animals in Hats piece for their Sheep Auction. Jeanne joined the rest of the flock and was auctioned off in September. Bumble and Jeanne raised a combined amount of £1,720 for The Blossom Charity (!!).


A tiny project of mine was the start of my daily drawings. Each day I would add a small drawing of whatever I fancied to my sketchbook. It was an incredibly therapeutic experiment, allowing me to simply create without the pressure of making it perfect. Although my schedule meant that I couldn't continue daily drawing throughout the last half of the year, it's definitely something I will be picking up again.



I was chosen by NorwichBID to create two murals in the famous Norwich Market. In October I started work on the first - A Fine City Bookshelf - a giant bookcase filled with all the parts of Norwich in book-form. I then got the opportunity to work with the OPEN Youth Trust to design a second mural inspired by the work they do in Norwich. The whole experience of painting these was great (albeit freezing!) and it's been so lovely to go visit them when I've been in Norwich since. I'll be writing more about the experience very soon, so do keep an eye out!



The last part of 2019 proved to be the busiest I have ever been. I found myself drawing every minute of the day to create part 2 to my Animals in Hats collection. Another fourteen members of the club went on display at Mustard Coffee bar in Norwich on 15th November and the feedback I have received from it has been really quite overwhelming. I am so very proud of the whole collection I have created this year, it feels very 'me' and I'm so pleased that the sheer amount of hard work I put into it has been worth it.



I had a last minute Christmas rush - something I am going to learn from for this year. It made for a busy time, but seeing and hearing the reactions from the recipients of Milo, Dobbin, Berry and Darcy, Steven, and Newky and Alfie really did make it all worth while.



My final piece of the year was a pretty unusual one, but it made perfect sense as a gift for Benji. Something completely different for me, but fun to paint nonetheless. It gave me a few ideas of more word-y pieces I'm looking forward to working on this year.



Wowza. Writing 2019 out like this really makes me proud of what I achieved...if you'd have told me last January that I was going to do all of that by the end of the year, I'd have never believed you.


Thank you to everyone who supported me last year, whether you've bought, liked, commented, read or shared. I really, really appreciate it.


Happy New (ish) Year


KTx

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