I've spent years in an 'on again and off again' relationship with Etsy. I dabbled back in 2011, and then decided that direct sales, galleries and exhibitions would be the main selling platform for me. In the intervening years, I've occasionally dipped back in to selling on Etsy; had a play, lost interest and gone back to face to face sales etc again.

Jump to 2020, and, like most, I've had to have a major rethink about how and where I'm promoting my work. I've done a bit of  website update and I'm back on Etsy, properly. I want my work to be widely available and in order to do that I'm putting back on my internet savvy hat, and trying to make the various platforms at my disposal work for me. So here goes, wish me luck! 

Frances Payne on Etsy

Winter Cottage. Watercolour illustration. Frances Payne. 2020.

Prints & greetin cards available from Etsy.

I've always got real joy from being a part, however small, of someone else's creative journey, and as such I have taught, and mentored, both budding and more experienced artists for many years. So when Karen, from the Mercer Gallery in Harrogate, approached me during my 'Imaginarium' exhibition at the Harrogate Theatre in August 2016 about working with the gallery in 2017, I was excited about the possibilities to say the least. 

“Not all who wander are lost” 

(Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring, 1954)

As many of you may be aware, I have had my head buried in books, lectures, theories and so on for the last two years whilst I have been completing a practice based Masters in Creative Practice. I have been creating too, it is a practice based programme after all, but the theory and contextualisation becomes so crucial to the practice element that every spare moment of brain time is consumed. It’s been EXHAUSTING.....

Any half baked complaints aside, the process has been invaluable. I have wandered and lost my way. Found the trail, promptly lost it again,

2016 has, in it's short four and a bit months, proved to be one of the most challenging years of my adult life.

And, I have ummm'd and ahhhhh'd at length about whether I would write anything on here about the emotional rollercoaster that has been 2016. But, the reality is I don't really have a choice. Writing an  update about my creative journey where I edited out experiences or thoughts that have been instrumental in shaping that journey, wouldn't be honest and would inevitably lead to it sounding contrived. So, here goes......