This is the first of many posts in my featured artist series. The very first artist I’m featuring is Esther of E McIsaac! I know Esther through the Fabulous Artistic Moms (FAM) etsy team, and I love her paintings.

Here’s a little preview from her etsy shop:

Now on to our interview:

How did you pick your shop name?

The name of my shop is my name I use my middle name McIsaac, my mother’s maiden name which we have traced the family back to the late 1500′s in Scotland.

This may be obvious, but what is your medium? What kinds of materials and tools do you use?

I actually use lots of different materials, watercolour, gouache, acrylic and oil are normal, but I also use sand, glass bead, and moulding gels mixed with acrylics to produce interesting textures.

Tell me a little bit about your process, from a new idea for a piece to the finished product. (You don’t have to give away trade secrets, so say as much or as little as you’d like. People love hearing about how artists work!)

My inspirations come from my surroundings where ever I am living, I just find so much appreciation in nature, from the smallest seed pod to the hills and mountains. This is a link to my landscape portfolio, http://home.earthlink.net/~emcisaac/index.html there is a description of how I look at what is around me. This summer for example I painted floral watercolours, I suppose I was worried that my flower garden would burn up hence I painted them. I do look at master painters and get inspired, and always wonder how did they do that, and try myself never comes out looking anything like theirs, but I always manage to learn something new about a technique or something about myself.

Any advice for aspiring artists/crafters in your medium?

Patience, and never compare yourself to another artist or concept, accept your gift and be content with your attempt. Like life, it changes and evolves so does your art.

Any business advice for artists/crafters just starting to sell their work?

Again patience when waiting for a sale, art is viewed as a non essential in general life, although I disagree. I do buy other artist’s work and I feel everyone should have art in their lives, I think it is part of showing your personality.

What is the last song/album you listened to? (I’m just curious, I love music.)

I’m all over the map on this one, I like Bruce Cockburn (Stealing Fire), Chris Rea (Road to Hell), Zap Mama (Bandy Bandy Ancestry in Progress), Enigma, Van Morrison, Eryka Badu

Do you sell your work anywhere other than etsy?

In my Brick and Mortar Studio, individual patrons

Are there other websites where we can find you/your work?

http://home.earthlink.net/~emcisaac/index.html
http://thesistersstudio.blogspot.com/

Tell me a little bit about the artist you named who you admire. (I recently invited my blog readers to nominate artists they admire to be featured here – and now I’m featuring both the nominees and the artists who nominated them.)

Her name is Kelly and I really do admire her, not just for the lovely items she sells on Etsy, but mostly for her sense of humour and intelligence. She always brightens someone’s day on the chat forum. I love her stories about her family and life that she shares, makes me realise how really we are all so similar. However, my big thing is how she is published by the big knit pattern companies. She can design, create and work out the maths into something that we all use, boggles my mind that she can produce all those increases and decrease, twists and turns that end up being a beautiful garment or item for the home. AMAZING! I have bought a couple of things from her and her work is outstanding, well made and treasured. Every time I put on my ballet slippers I think of her, and I also wonder how she made them, I haven’t figured that out and I knit.