Year in Review: 2025

2025 has been a pretty good year personally. We celebrated my partners 40th birthday with our first abroad trip as a family to Malta. We were also lucky enough to travel to Mallorca later in the year. The children and I went to Weymouth on holiday with my mum and nanny and my partners parents treated the family to a week-long stay in Lyme Regis. Plus we reaped the benefit of my Dad living in Cornwall with a couple of trips there. It felt great to travel a bit more, earning money from my part time job certainly helped my finances this year though it’s not a job I’m happy in at least it’s leading to doing more exciting things and making memories with the children.

I got to have a couple of London trips with my buddy Sarah too, gallery days certainly do fill my cup.

The negative side to 2025 has unfortunately been sales of my work taking a nosedive. I increased my prices early in the year as I had been accepted into an online exhibition with a London based gallery. They advised that I increase my prices which I thought was fair as I’ve always felt like my work has been undervalued. This coupled with a tricky time economically where most people are feeling the strain has meant that I’ve hardly made any sales this year. My part-time warehouse job was only supposed to be a stopgap, but due to my lack of sales, it’s become almost my entire way of making money. My daughter started preschool in September which has meant that I’ve actually had more time to make art since then, however 2026 looks like it’s going to be the year where I have to find some other way of earning money as I can’t justify spending so much time making art that I can’t make money from. I wish I had the privilege of being able to make art without worrying about earning money but unfortunately that isn’t the case for me.

Making so few sales has definitely had an impact on my confidence as well. This year has felt quite difficult as an artist and I have felt the urge to give up drawing completely. I know that at the end of the day making art is part of who I am and so I could never stop completely, but I do think I will have to reevaluate making art a career.

Listed below are the exhibitions that I took part in this year. I did a year of rejection challenge where I entered more open calls, which led to exhibiting with Blue Shop Gallery and Canal Boat Contemporary. Exhibiting at Talos Art Gallery again was also a big highlight.

Christmas Open Studios, Project Workshops, Quarley, Hampshire

Miniature Masters, Canal Boat Contemporary, London

Wiltshire Artists Annual Exhibition, St Peter’s Church, Marlborough, Wiltshire

Open Studios, Project Workshops, Quarley, Hampshire

Summer Exhibition, Talos Art Gallery, Calne, Wiltshire

Works on Paper 7, Blue Shop Gallery, London

Bristol and Clifton Golf Club Private Members Art Fair, Bristol

As well as making predominantly ink drawings I also started working with watercolour which made a nice change.

So all in all a good year for adventuring and making happy memories but not so good as an artist. Let’s hope 2026 is better.

Year of Rejection; How Did It Go?

If you’re one of my patrons then you’ll know about my year of rejection challenge in detail. In 2025 I’ve been entering more things than usual in a bid to get used to being rejected, so that the fear or rejection doesn’t hold me back.

I thought I’d briefly surmise what I entered and the result.

• Blue Shop Galleries Open Call ✔️

• Arborealists Associate Application ❌

• Jackson’s Art Prize ❌

• LAOTY ❌

• Wells Art Contemporary ❌

• ING Discerning Eye ❌

• Mylo Art❓

• Hampstead Art Society ❌

• Canal Boat Contemporary ✔️

The idea was to actually enter 100 things but open call fees and lack of time to research open calls hindered me somewhat. I was pleased to be accepted to two open calls. Mylo Art wasn’t an open call, I contacted the gallery owner out of the blue and they were very kind, it wasn’t an outright no but not quite a yes so one I may revisit next year.

The main thing is that I do feel better about rejection now and I will put myself out there more in 2026.

Artist Support Pledge

I first took part in the Artist Support Pledge not long after its inception in 2020. I was mainly making miniature watercolours alongside my detailed pen drawings. It took a while but I eventually sold £1000 worth of work and in turn bought work from two artists to complete my pledge. As 2025 has been a difficult year financially as an artist I decided to take part in Artist Support Pledge again, it’s such a great initiative and community, and I’m hoping that by being part of the pledge more opportunities will come my way.

Many of the ink drawings that I’ve been making for the last couple of years happen to be priced at £220 which is the new price for work in the pledge. Rather than singling out a few drawings, I’ve decided to include all original work that is priced at £220 or under in the pledge. Once I reach £1100 worth of sales through those original pieces, I will be delighted to add to my own art collection by supporting another artist.

All of the drawings available are at claireleach.com/shop.