Amber Sadiq, Reporter
@asadiqcourant
In the age of social media, many creators have found success with marketing their work on platforms such as Instagram, Tik Tok, and Pinterest. Avalon Neleman is one such person. Her self-run painting business, Happy Day Paintings, includes a variety of customizable designs.
Avalon began her Instagram account, titled @happydaypaintings, in early November. “I started earlier this year. I’ve been painting for people for about two months.” says Avalon “I used to post my paintings on my main Instagram story or my Snapchat and say it’s up for sale if anyone wants them just working generally through social media.”
Avalon began casually designing her own doodles before making the decision to paint them. “It began as just a really fun thing to do, using my Dad’s paint and creating for fun,” Avalon said. Avalon’s father, who has his own gallery in town, is a painter himself. “I have all of his supplies at my disposal,” Avalon said. “…that definitely made me a lot more confident in myself, I’ve always been pretty artistic I’d like to say.”
Chain businesses get more profit, but they’re not as customizable or unique. Small businesses, like Avalon’s, usually have more success in building personal relationships with their customers.“I feel like in a small business like mine, the products are more exclusive in that way,” Avalon said, “No one can get another painting that I sold last week simply because it’s not going to be the same, that’s definitely a big difference– that you can’t get the same product twice.”
Avalon explains what aspects she enjoys about running her business, “I like how I can be creative. I don’t have to necessarily stick to one thing. I love doing custom orders, customers telling me things they want on their piece, the color scheme, the design,” Avalon said. “I love when customers send me pictures of the products in their rooms or hanging on their walls, it just makes me really happy that they liked it.”
Like every artist, Avalon has her own creative process when it comes to developing her products. “First I draw the design on paper with pencil on a separate piece of paper, and then I put it on a canvas and ‘enlarge’ it,” Avalon said. “I usually have my customers send me images and other designs they want on it, maybe quotes or different shapes, and I try to match it.”, “I start doing a base layer. After I paint in all my lines, I go in with my paint markers and draw highlights and then outline everything in black. Then I wrap it up and deliver it or send it.” Avalon said.
Despite Happy Day Paintings being fairly new, it is extremely exciting to see where its traction will take it. “When I go to college I won’t have the same supplies because I typically use my Dad’s art studio in my house. For now, it’s a fun thing to do for the rest of the year as long as people still like them. I’ll probably keep doing them on my own and putting them in my room,” Avalon said. “I already have an entire stack in my room of ones I’ve made but haven’t sold.”
A small business brings a fair amount of flexibility for the owner and social media as a source of support has proven to be extremely beneficial for said business owners.
