Just a small town Canadian farm girl, who turned into a world traveller (I now call Australia home). I’ve always been a creative at heart, from cutting up my Bernstein Bears picture books when I was 4 to finding a love for art and crafts inspired by my Mum, my Gammy and my Grandma Becker who were always making and creating. My Dad actually had a side hustle as a taxidermist too! (Totally yuck!), but I remember watching him sculpt the forms out of styrofoam and use air brushing techniques to paint the fish to make it look realistic! I was hooked! One day when my dad was away fishing for the weekend, my sis and I went out to my Dad’s taxidermy studio and grabbed his paints he used for the fish. We decided to give our treehouse a little makeover! OMG, when my Dad got home, we got in sooooo much trouble! Little did we know his special taxidermy paints cost a fortune! OOPS! After that little stint, it was clear that I needed my own set of paints! HA!

Fast forward about 15 years and I went on to study Visual Arts at Uni due to the encouragement of a couple of really inspiring art teachers that I had throughout my school days! I actually wanted to drop out of Uni at one point, and I remember ringing my Mom telling her I wanted to quit and move to Mexico to teach English! Mom was not happy, (I’m a bit of a dreamer), she quickly pulled me back into reality and I’m sooo glad she did! Mom knows best!

I finished my Visual Arts degree and finally pursued my dream of studying abroad! I decided that I was going to move overseas for a year and get my teaching degree at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia! It was the hardest thing I have ever done (I didn’t know a single soul and I bawled my eyes out at the airport saying goodbye to my family). But once I got to Oz, I knew I had made the best decision of my life! I studied hard and partied harder! HAHA! I had the best time and met some of the most amazing people ever, some are actually my best friends today! How lucky am I?

When I arrived home from Oz, I felt sick. I missed the thrill of adventure, so I worked my but off to save up as much money as I could. Then I decided to pack up again, but this time I would head for London! I arrived in February 2009, and signed up with a teaching agency, during my first few days at school I came home crying! It was a tough gig! I had no clue what I was doing! But I kept going and things got a lot easier, I finally found the sweetest little school and I ended up working there until my visa ran out.

During my time in London, I was introduced to my hubby Clint from a friend that I met in Australia! How crazy! I ran into both my hubby and my friend at the Putney Boat races! It was an instant connection and here we are 11 years later, married with two gorgeous fur babies; Greyson and William. Life is good!

Clint and I have moved around Australia a bit. I started out teaching whole school Visual Arts at a fabulous school in Melbourne, then we moved back to Clint’s home town where I got a job at a local high school where I taught Visual Arts and also took on the gig of Careers Adviser! It was an awesome job and I adored the people I worked with, but it was time for a change! Off we moved to Brisbane!

When we arrived in Bris-Vegas, Visual Arts teaching jobs were hard to come by, so I started casual teaching and got a bit bored, I missed teaching Visual Arts and sharing my passion with my students. I had a brainwave! I would open an art studio! So I thought of a name for my business and I booked out the local community centre. I decided to run some school holiday workshops to see if my idea was a hit or a miss. Turns out the workshops were a complete success! By the end of the first week I had parents calling me to see if I was running a second week. I was onto something!!!

After that I searched for a studio space of my own! Clint and I finally found the perfect little spot next to a Thai restaurant in a cute little building that reminded me of a lolly shop. The plans for the fit out began! I had my very first art studio space! Woohoo!

We continued to grow and grow and grow. Eventually I had to start turning people away (it broke my heart). Oh yay… COVID happened somewhere in there too, but we got through it!

In October 2021, we took the plunge and moved into a larger studio space on the main street of Wynnum in Brisbane! Clint and worked day and night to make the studio the most incredible space ever! Thank god Clint is a carpenter/builder by trade so he embraced all of my ideas like creating my very own lip lounge inspired by the artist Salvador Dali. I also decided to re-brand the studio during this time too! New studio, new brand, it was the perfect combo!

We managed to finish the studio just in time for our term 4 after school classes to start! The space looked amazing! It was a dream come true!

In late 2022, I decided it was time for a change, I wanted to focus my time and energy on growing Hearty Art Club - Online Art Classes for Kids and my signature program Creative Workshop Academy. I just couldn’t do it all, I was getting burnt out (I was still at school teaching afew days a week too). So I made the really tough decision to sell part of the business. The stars aligned for me, it was totally meant to be, as the most incredible art teacher named Jodie reached out to me about buying part of the business. I knew straight away that she was the perfect person to takeover the studio space and take the workshops to the next level! It was perfect! Everything just fell into place.

Currently, I am focusing my time on expanding Hearty Art Club and developing my course Creative Workshop Academy which helps creatives plan, price and promote profitable workshops. Are you trying to plan your very own creative workshop? My Workshop Success Playbook will help! Get your FREE Playbook HERE!

It’s sooo much fun to look back at how far my business has come, and I can’t wait to see where this Hearty Art journey takes me next! It’s been such a fun ride! Thank you for all of the endless love and support!

x Brittany