Brisbane artist Kate Quinn in her home studio.
Having dedicated almost two decades to a career in social work, Kate Quinn began exploring her long-held passion for painting. After signing up for a few art classes and learning as much as possible via trial and error, in 2019 she started to get more serious about her art practice.
“I set up an Instagram page and tried to carve more dedicated time out each week to paint, which was difficult with a part-time job and three kids,” recalls Kate, who primarily paints floral still life and commissioned pet portraits. “In early 2020, I entered the ‘JUMBLED’ Art Superstar’ competition [run by Orange-based retail store JUMBLED and, to my utter shock, I won it!”
Winning the competition gave Kate the confidence to forge ahead. She set up a studio in her Brisbane home and, by 2022, had resigned from her social work job and become a full-time artist. Kate also formed a partnership with fellow artist Emily Day to offer workshops and create online courses under the name Bloom Art Experiences.
Here we asked Kate about her decision to partner up and branch out, her course offerings and what inspired her to reach out to 23 fellow artists for an upcoming Dangerous Females fundraiser.
Interview by Lisa Doust.
What originally prompted you to explore and expand the business side of your art practice?
Making a living from selling original art alone is almost impossible. Being able to diversify my income with things like Bloom Art Experiences, home classes or developing products from my art has allowed me to create a small passive income stream alongside selling originals.
Also, I love new projects and am prone to being a rapid ‘doer’, so when I have an idea, such as my one-on-one art classes, I will furiously work on that idea until it is launched. Fortunately, Emily and I both really enjoy the process of brainstorming, creating and delivering new projects.
How did your business partnership with Emily come about, how often are your Bloom workshops held and what do participants learn?
I first ‘met’ Emily on Instagram, where we admired each other’s floral still life work. Soon after, I started a regular in-person catch up for a few Brisbane artists and invited Emily along. We quickly became friends and enjoyed bouncing ideas off one another.
I had been teaching one-on-one art classes at home for a while when a friend in Rockhampton asked me to fly up and teach a group class. I asked Emily to come along and help me out, as the group was too big to manage on my own, and out of that Bloom Art Experiences was born.
Bloom has been running for almost three years now and we create bespoke, high-quality art workshops in unique and beautiful locations across Australia up to eight times a year.
Our workshops teach small groups how to create a floral still life painting. We split the group into two – I teach oils while Emily teaches acrylics. We place great importance on the day-long classes being luxurious, supportive and self-care focused, with quality food, wine, flowers, materials and a lovely physical environment.
Do you and Emily have any new ventures on the horizon?
Yes – after extensive planning, writing scripts and preparing, we recently had a professional videographer film Bloom Online, which will launch in October.
Bloom Online will offer two self-managed courses on how to paint a simple floral still life – one in oils and the other in acrylics. It will be a combination of video, photographic and written content, with links and resources attached. The courses will be available for anyone, anywhere, to complete in the comfort of their own home.
Tell us about your Run the Show online course.
Run The Show is a short and easy-to-follow online course for artists, with advice on how to run your own solo exhibition. The traditional model of having an exhibition through a gallery can be wonderful, but not all artists are able to secure gallery representation, and if they do, they will pay up to 50% commission on any work sold.
In 2023, Emily and I rented a local space and together we had a near-sell-out exhibition, paying a flat fee for the space hire but no commission, and retaining complete creative control. It was such a positive experience, and I thought there must be a lot of artists out there with a body of work they would like to show but without the knowledge of how to do so.
Artists who purchase the course learn everything they need to know about running an art exhibition independently: venues, marketing, collaboration, bump in and out, shipping, merchandising, payments and much more.
I had never done anything like this before and had to teach myself how to use technology to write, film, edit and create the course. It took a long time, but I am proud of it!
You recently organised a collective of artists to create flower paintings for an upcoming Dangerous Females fundraiser. What inspired this?
Dangerous Females is an incredible charity raising funds and awareness for frontline domestic and family violence services. I have followed them on social media for a long time and always keep an eye on what they are doing, as most of my social work career was in the domestic and family violence sphere.
I approached Dangerous Females with an idea to involve a group of 24 Australian artists in a fundraiser, as I thought having a group of us involved would have broader reach and better scope to raise money. I came up with the idea of each artist painting a flower, which we would assemble into a digital design for Dangerous Females to put onto tees, totes and tea towels.
I asked a group of artists I am friendly with, either in person or through Instagram, and they all said yes straight away!
When will the fundraiser take place, and where will the proceeds be directed?
We are launching the Dangerous Females x Australian Artist Collective collaboration on 21 September at a sold-out event in Paddington, Brisbane. From that date, the tees, totes and tea towels will be for sale via the Dangerous Females website, and the original paintings will be auctioned online a week or two later.
All proceeds from the original paintings and merchandise will go to the current Dangerous Females charity partner, Beyond DV, a Brisbane-based recovery service offering programs for victim-survivors around health, legal support, housing and financial wellbeing.
What are you currently working on?
This month I’m helping my sister Lizzy launch an ergonomic portable folding chair for her new business, The Captain Chair Co. – I designed some beautiful, colourful fabrics for the chairs. The biggest project of all coming up is a new exhibition with Emily being held in Brisbane next July – we both have to paint over 140 pieces for this show, so we have a lot of work to do!
Follow Kate via @katequinnart or visit katequinnart.com