Abigail Spence

What's the latest piece of art that you have put out into the world?

I recently finished a painting titled Woods Full Of Stardust.  It's a traditional painting showing a magical stag standing amongst the trees, stardust rising up from his feet. My biggest goal with the painting was to invoke this feeling of fantastical discovery, as though you were walking deep into a forest, maybe you were even lost!  And one moment everything was bleak and dark but the next you look up and you see these deer and the light and the magic of this place and you are comforted.  Almost as though you had stumbled into a storybook.

What drives you to keep creating?

A drive for my own discovery, I think.  I desperately want to know what else I could make.  It was relatively recently that I started really digging into what I wanted to portray and find in my own work.  And what I really want to do is find more of these stories inside of myself and share them with the people around me.

Is there another artist's work that you would recommend, and why?

That's such a difficult question, I have so many!  Noti jumps to mind first, they're a french illustrator creating beautifully detailed ink work. The flow and texture of their work is absolutely hypnotic and I love to get lost in them.  You can find them at @notideeart on twitter!  The other artist I'd like to mention is Berneri who does wonderfully stylized animal work.  Their colors and patterns are a constant inspiration for me!  You can find them at @BerneriART on twitter.

Do you have any advice for creators that are just starting out?

Make sure to have a buffer and make sure to have passion.  Art is hard.  Making a career out of it is harder.  Having a financial buffer is incredibly important, whether it's a sizable savings stash or a day job.  Beyond that though, have passion and love for what you're doing.  And have a healthy bit of spite as well.  I think most artists would tell you that they've had days where the only reason they didn't give up was because they had spite and stubbornness in them, because they wanted to prove something. So let that carry you through the hard days and let your passion carry you through the good.

Where can we find your work?

You can find my gallery and store at abigailspenceart.com but otherwise you can find me on most social media platforms as @aspenceart!