Alice Herbst began to study art at the age of 21. Now 3 years later, Alice has begun to practice a career as an artist and impressively she's making a living out of it.
The forecast looked very different just a few years ago. Back in 2012, she won Top Model Sweden. The honour was a job at a model agency in Los Angeles.
Nonetheless, her modelling stint didn't become a lifelong love affair. Early on she came to terms that a career within fashion was not for her. The people that she worked with, and her agency had poor business ethics and she felt that she was constantly kept in the dark.
Even though she has quit modelling, we can still see hints of her background in her drawings. Sometimes she poses nude and later captures a beautiful woman in a drawing, but her work can also be very different.
Alice art is all over Instagram, which is also her main marketing channel. One year ago, she began to fully exploit the power of Instagram and it has paid off. ”Instagram is my platform to market my work and I receive constructive feedback from people that follow my work. I feel Instagram allows me to be creative in a different way”. Through regular updates and fun and beautiful content, she has created a fan-base of 20k followers.
Alice studied art for 3 years and graduated in June 2017. The traditional way after art school is to continue with a university degree. Alice chose not to and continued with her own business. During her time at school, she felt that her teachers had a different ambition with her work than she had.
She prefer to focus more on the visual part than the thought or meaning behind the canvas, unlike her teachers and many others she has met over the years. ”I’m glad I have my education because I have learned a lot, but now I’m excited to be creative and see what happens.”
There are people who are skeptical about Alice’s way of working. The skepticism can be about her Instagram account and how Alice chooses to present her art. But she firmly believes that you can’t satisfy everyone. She gets a lot of support from her boyfriend, Chris Högman, who also is an artist.
”For me, it’s important to have a full schedule, and I work accordingly. Just because I’m not doing everything according to the textbook doesn’t mean I'm less capable of creating art. My boyfriend and I see our practice as a business”.
It is difficult to be an artist, and the odds of succeeding is very low. As with all things in life, it requires hard work, and a lot of patience but Alice is not waiting for anyone to recognise her. To take the unconventional route may be risky, but sometimes that is exactly the right thing to do.
We look forward to follow Alice in the year's to come. She is a brisk and positive air to an otherwise very concerned and anxious Instagram society.
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Age: 24.
Lives: Gärdet, Stockholm.
Favourite gallery: The Unit London
Favourite artists: Justin Mortimer, Daniel Pitín to name a few.
What are your thoughts at the moment? I'm looking for a combined studio and gallery for me and my boyfriend. The next step will be to have a physical place to exhibit our works in!
Best art-related Instagram account? Paint guide
