Artist Ashley Beerdat
Tell us about yourself, your company and the creations you’ll soon be featuring online.
I am a visual artist and arts facilitator, I primarily work in oil painting to construct mythical and fantastical worlds from my imagination.
I draw upon themes of storytelling, mythology, and folklore to navigate the world around me. I will be featuring some small-scale, ready-to-hang, affordable original paintings on my Shopify site.
I will also be releasing some limited-edition soft-touch lamination 10-x-10-inch prints of three oil paintings with original poems being exhibited in my upcoming show at Latitude 53 in Alberta that center around the idea of tending and expressing care for ourselves and others.
These paintings are greatly important to me because I am exhibiting with a group of artists I’ve shared tender moments with online as we’ve been planning the show. I wanted to share these feelings of warmth and kindness by releasing some of these prints to the public as an extension of not only my group show but a community project with Rising Youth where I created prints for hospital patients as a way of beautifying their spaces and spreading a sense of joy and wonder that I try to communicate in my art.
Weaving Open Paths to Dapple Golden Light, 2021, 10 x 10 inch print
These prints of my work also explore the tenderness I feel in nature and depict luscious gardens with rich and colorful hues. I hope for the viewer to enjoy the natural wonder that surrounds them and basks in the warm sunlight. Nature can help us feel grounded from the smell of blossoming spring flowers and the sight of rich hues that awakens our senses. In these gentle moments, we are reminded to plant and nourish the seeds that will soon grow into a beautiful garden.
You’re creating an online presence with your Shopify platform. Tell us a little about the challenges, new insights or the skills gained along the way as you created your platform.
Some of the challenges I faced creating my platform include staying true to my identity as a fine artist.
With Shopify there are many options such as print-on-demand services that make it more convenient for the seller through alleviating some of the tasks like printing, shipping, and keeping unsold inventory. I decided to prepare and customize the prints myself, control the number of prints I am producing and handle the shipping to stay true to my creative side and ensure I am providing quality prints to customers.
Smells of Citrus Fruit Circle the Air, 2021, 10 x 10 inch print
I am very thankful for all the customizations and options offered by Shopify but I realized to stay focused on certain ones relevant to my creations. Shopify is great with offering customizations and is very user-friendly to offer support along the way as someone who is new to setting up a site and building an online presence.
What are you most excited about considering your new platform?
I am most excited about building an online presence authentic to me that offers my artwork online to Canadian and international customers, where I can feel confident about the way I am presenting my brand and feel supported along the way through the user-friendly Shopify platform. I cannot wait for my prints and artworks to be in the hands of customers and hear their experiences and reactions, enjoying a piece of my artwork in their homes or special spaces.
Visit Ashley’s online shop and others’ at www.sketch.ca/holidaygiftguide.
The post Holiday Gift Guide Feature: Interview with Artist-Vendor Ashley Beerdat appeared first on SKETCH Working Arts.