What's an artist's life really like?
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This page provides some pointers to the REALITY of working lives for professional artists.

What do you need to do to become a professional artist?
  • What makes the difference between being a professional and an amateur?
  • Can anybody be a professional artist in today's economy?

This page aims to provide some insights into the reality of the working life of the professional artist - that is everything that an artist needs to do and become good at BESIDES making art!
There's a tendency to think of becoming an artist as boiling down to:
  • have talent
  • develop art skills
  • study for an art degree
  • develop a portfolio
  • talk to galleries
  • have an exhibition and sell artwork
However the reality is VERY different. 

There's a LOT more to becoming an artist than simply being able to make art!

How to be an Artist - artists talk about "being an artist"
A very distinguished English artist said to me once: ‘I wonder what the art dealers of London would do if there were no art schools. They might have to support artists.’ And on the whole artists are in fact supported by the art schools. They have a life style which comes from having a regular income; if they are really diligent and committed to their quasi-social role they will end up with a pension. But so many of them have said to me: ‘But really you see it’s my work, I can’t stop teaching because I’ve got to pay for my studio and then I wouldn’t be able to travel and so on’. So life goes on.

to be an artist means .... that you have to look after yourself in whatever way you can
How to be an Artist by Howard Hodgkin
Lesson #1: Observe the world around you—closely, hungrily
Lesson #2: Organization is key to productivity
Lesson #3: Don’t sweat mistakes—learn from them
Lesson # 4: Pay no attention to trends—be yourself
Despite her reputation as a free spirit, O’Keeffe thrived when her materials were meticulously organized and she stuck to a daily routine.
How to Be an Artist, According to Georgia O’Keeffe
Lesson #1: Master the basics, then be expressive
Lesson #2: Make up your own rules
Lesson #3: Surround yourself with things you love—they will inspire you
Lesson #4: Don’t let anything keep you from making art
rather than let his bedridden state mark the end of his creative output, though, Matisse saw it as an opportunity for new beginnings. He reorganized his bedroom so that everything he needed to make art was within reach: a bedside table with drawers containing art supplies; a revolving bookcase holding classics and dictionaries; and a wooden board placed atop his knees, upon which he made sketches and sculptures.
How to be an Artist, According to Henri Matisse
Lesson #1: Find your people and band together
Lesson #2: Set your own narrative
Lesson #3: Consider a change of context
Lesson #4: Evolution happens slowly—practice patience
Long before art schools offered professional practice courses, Mondrian was carefully honing his public persona and making shrewd decisions about the context in which his work was shown.
.....Throughout his career, he emphasized how important the right placement and lighting was to the experience of viewing his paintings.
How to Be an Artist, According to Piet Mondrian
Lesson #1: Make art about your life
Lesson #2: Find inspiration in all of nature, including spiders and maggots
Lesson #3: Revisit the same themes over and over again (but also keep experimenting)
Lesson #4: Never stop making art
In the numerous interviews, essays, and diary entries that form the written record of her approach to artmaking, Bourgeois maintained that art and life were one. “Art is not about art. Art is about life, and that sums it up,” she declared.
How to Be an Artist, According to Louise Bourgeois
After lunch, Richter returns to his studio to work into the evening. ''I have always been structured,'' he explains. ''What has changed is the proportions. Now it is eight hours of paperwork and one of painting.''
An Artist Beyond Isms

Articles about "being an artist"

These are articles that focus mainly on the reality that life is not all about making art!
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The habit most commonly shared among artists is a commitment to answering emails first thing in the morning—and then not thinking about them again.
12 Habits of Highly Effective Artists
Articles tend to highlight the following as being helpful

Features of the Lives of Professional Working Artist
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​INDEPENDENT
  • work on a freelance basis i.e. you have no employer - only clients
  • self-reliant - if there's nobody else to help you have to get on and do or learn 'how to' for yourself
  • multi-faceted - you have to do everything - and that  also involves knowing/meeting lots of people
  • work odd hours - this is NOT a 9 to 5 job
  • solitary - you spend an awful lot of time on your own
DISCIPLINED
  • disciplined about turning up every morning for ALL the work (including the non-art stuff)
  • create routines - for getting things done and turning up for work
  • focused on getting things done - because unless you make things happen you won't earn any income and you certainly won't make art for pleasure
  • no time off - your art business is on your mind all the time
BUSINESS-LIKE
  • manage money well - you get very good at managing money OR starve OR have to do something else for a living. It's a great incentive!
  • manage time well - you have no personal life if you don't make money and manage your time well
  • manage paperwork well - unless you have a co-operative and supportive partner - because otherwise who else is going to manage it?
  • work cooperatively with others - whether it's a life partner or a group of like-minded artists or people you employ to help you out with the things you need doing - you get much more done when working as a team.
  • have a second job - to make sure you have a roof over your head and can pay the bills on time. A lot of artists also work as an illustrator - via an agent.
​RISK-TAKER
  • no safety nets - You MUST make enough money to provide your own health insurance, maternity pay, sickness benefits etc.
  • no pension - unless you remember to create one for yourself!
REFERENCE
Business art is the step that comes after art.
Andy Warhol
It’s not business cards or high grades from high school or university, and it isn’t even the amount of time devoted to art. Many people don’t start their art careers as full-time artists, but instead hold down two jobs – one for the rent, and one for the love of it. 
Life as a professional artist
Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Essays by 40 Working Artists
by Sharon Louden
40 individual perspectives on developing and maintaining a creative life - written as narratives, statements and interviews.

The content is insightful in relation to individual perspectives - but highly personalised and sometimes repetitive (in terms of similar points being made again and again)
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Intellect
Publication date: 30 Aug. 2013

Research about Artists' Working Lives
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From time to time various government and grant funding bodies take a look at the nature of the characteristics of artists - and the lives of working artists.
REFERENCE:
  • Researching Artists’ Working Lives (PDF file) | special research feature lift-out Arts Research Digest, vol 30 (spring), 2004  - The ways in which artists earn a living, the conditions in which they work and the laws and systems that support (and sometimes hinder) them have become increasingly popular subjects of research in the past fifteen years. Phyllida Shaw provides an introduction to the field
  • National Life Stories: Artists' Lives | British Library - Artists' Lives was initiated in 1990 by National Life Stories, the charitable trust based in the oral history section of the British Library, in partnership with Tate Archive and is run in close collaboration with the Henry Moore Institute. Its aim is to enable British artists to create a record of their experiences in their own words to complement, enlarge and sometimes challenge accounts by other commentators.
  • Art - Oral history | British Library - Sounds - This collection documents the lives of individuals involved in British art, including painters, sculptors, curators, dealers and critics. The interviews were conducted as part of Artists' Lives (C466), an ongoing oral history project that was initiated in 1990 by National Life Stories, the charitable trust based in the oral history section of the British Library, in collaboration with Tate Archive. 

An Art Historical Perspective
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Once upon a time famous artists and past masters were emerging artists learning how to be professional artists. Some learned better than others. More than a few enjoyed fame in their life time - but died in poverty.
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​REFERENCE
Vite
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Flamboyant. Extravagant. Extroverted. Eccentric. Megalomaniac. Alcoholic. Sexually obsessed. Manic-depressive. Bohemian. There are as many stereotypes as there are anecdotes about famous artists. The inevitable intertwining of an artist’s colourful biography and aesthetic genius has provided fodder for scholarly speculation, populist fascination and plain, old-fashioned entertainment. Beyond the mere sensationalism, how important is persona in understanding an artist’s practice?
Banner Photo by Ivars Krutainis on Unsplash
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