For an artist, the most important quality to have is dedication. Whether you’ve had years of professional training or none at all, you could still be a tremendous artist with dedication. Teddi Parker is a stay at home mom with 2 little babies, who usually paints during nap time. With more than eighty thousand followers, her acrylic paintings are mesmerising and her brush stroke techniques help her stand out amongst the plethora of artists on Instagram. Teddi believes that “daily practice” has helped her grow as an artist and states that joining “the daily painting movement” has helped her learn art much faster.
Inspiration, motivation and prioritisation
What inspires her?
The outside in summertime…Flowers are so inspiring!
I’ve also found inspiration at the library with my girls. Illustrators these days are so creative!” she continued. While Teddi finds it easiest to paint when inspiration strikes, she also keeps a Pinterest page and an album of photos on her iPad to refer to when she needs a push.
Talking about prioritisation and guilt, Teddi confessed that she no longer feels guilty about giving daily life priority over creating art.
I find that I can’t focus if my sink is full of dishes or if the lawn needs to be mowed. So instead, I try and plan out my week of painting around other things that I need to get done. If I clean at nap time, I’ll paint after the girls go down at night – if I have the energy. Just finding a good rhythm and structure to the day but also being flexible is key. No one wants to feel guilty. I also take time to do other hobbies I like – knitting, embroidering, drinking wine (wink). It’s okay to take a break, it makes my eyes fresh.
Her Instagram Journey
I only joined Instagram a couple of years ago and it’s been a whirlwind. I love having the feedback and interaction with the art community there, but it’s been a learning curve when it comes to keeping personal priorities in the correct order in my heart. My husband likes to say “followers are fake internet points.” and that keeps my head from getting too big and reminds me that I paint for fun, not for everyone watching.
Teddi also likes to share the process of creating her art on her page often. “I always appreciate when artists I admire do this – unravel the mystery that is how they see the world in paint. So, I guess I do it to help all the other people trying to teach themselves to paint.”
However, even then, Teddi stated that it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing your work to others. She states that
Jesus and my husband keep me grounded. I used to get super low on bad painting days, but after many many of those, the low is shallower and I can enjoy the process of learning and move on more.
Naming her paintings
If you’ve noticed all the captions added to her paintings above then you should know that those are the names that Teddi has given to each painting. On her Instagram, there are several others that are called “Boo”, “Refreshing Reflections” and “Floating along”. I then asked her about this quirk and she replied:
Carol Marine probably inspired this. She has the cleverest titles! I can’t imagine not naming each one. It’s like spending time with a different child of mine every day, each unique and the time with them marks that day. Plus, the silly ones are so fun and memorable.
Conveying a message through art
Make good art, not just art for the sake of art, but skillfully done craft is important. I like my art to feel hopeful and bright – I am created to create.
