The artist, Sophie Tea, is known globally for her dreamy paintings, promoting body positivity through art, and limited edition collections. With her wildly successful career as a painter, we had the chance to sit down with Sophie during her visit to Dubai and get all the deets on how she got her job as an artist.
Sophie starts off by telling us that “six years ago, I was outside a hostel in India. I was low on cash and needed a place to sleep. I noticed the outside walls of the hostel were partially painted in incomplete graffiti art. I asked the hostel manager if I could continue the painting in exchange for a free night’s stay. He agreed so I painted.”
Sophie recalls that time in India as a massive turning point in both her mindset and her life’s direction. She had almost completed a degree in brand marketing (and laughs as she confesses, she was disastrous at her internship,) and decided to switch things up to pursue a career in painting instead. She goes on to explain that her “parents were somewhat skeptical at first about my sudden career move but after they saw the effort, drive, and perseverance I put into my biz, they were on board.”
Fast forward to today, Sophie sells her artwork for upwards of 30,000 pounds a painting and is living her best creative life.
Sophie began her artistic career by taking commissioned paintings from her friends and family. She reflects that “everyone loves to have their pets painted, and I’d do it in a way that showcased my own unique flavour. For example, I once painted someone’s dog being pink.”
She had tiny bits of success early on that fuelled her to keep pushing with painting. As she took more commissioned jobs, she developed her signature colour story and composition
style.
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After she felt that she painted enough animals, Sophie moved onto painting abstracts, garnering a lot of attention. That’s when she decided she no longer wanted to paint abstract anymore, but instead to move on painting body positive portraits of the feminine figure.
Although she left people shocked, Sophie explains that she “prefers to move on from a subject when I’m at my height as opposed to when interest dies down.”Â
The artist then went on to produce shows in major cities around the world artfully celebrating painted women of all shapes and sizes. The shows were a hit, so naturally, she stopped doing them.
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When Sophie initially began her career as an artist, she figured she’d need to get her work into a gallery to sell it. After realising that galleries take 50% commission, this lateral thinker decided to do it her own way.
Using the power of social media, Sophie “created a lot of buzz about my paintings on Instagram. I decided to do something unheard of in the artist world. I created a system where people can purchase my art, pay a small down payment and have the painting delivered to their home right away. They then pay off the cost of the artwork in instalments over the course of the year.”
Genius? We think so.
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What struck us as remarkable is Sophie’s perspective on herself, her business, and life in general. She’s a self-described savage who never takes no for an answer. “I trusts myself and my instinct above any advice that I gets from outside sources. I never take advice from others. I thrive in uncertainty and am unapologetically myself.”
Sophie tells us she doesn’t care what anyone thinks about her, and she enjoys the pleasure with letting go of anything that does not serve her highest good.
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Sophie also only surrounds herself with people who have her best interest at heart. She employs 16 people, three of who are her sister, cousin, and best friend. We asked Sophie for best advice she has for a Cosmo girl pursing her passion. She simply states “to keep pushing for the dream and never, ever stop.” We couldn’t agree more.