Today we’d like to introduce you to Annika Koser.
Hi Annika, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I’ve loved to draw forever and took a few art classes in high school, but never saw potential in it becoming a sustainable career, so when I graduated high school, I went to college for a year (undeclared!) and came home at the end of the year because I still had no clue what I wanted to do as a career. That’s when I began painting- I work at Port Royal Speedway and was spending all of my weekends at the racetrack so racing ended up becoming the subject matter of my paintings. I never painted the cars themselves and would just paint speedway logos and car numbers until Greg Hodnett passed and my dad encouraged me to do a painting of Greg’s car that we could donate to a local auction to benefit his family. I ended up giving the painting to Greg’s wife, Sherry, and when I shared it online, it gained a lot of attention, and people began to message me asking if I’d paint something for them. That developed into selling prints of my paintings and growing enough of an audience that I could quit my job and do it full-time!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The painting side of it feels very natural to me, but the business side of it is still a pretty big struggle a lot of the time. I’d still paint if no one paid attention to it, so I probably don’t price things as well as I should, and that holds me back a bit from where I could be if I was a super business-minded person. Still a lot to learn in that department! I also experience a lot of imposter syndrome, so I’m constantly having to remind myself that I deserve great opportunities when they’re presented to me and that I put in a lot of work to earn it as opposed to just “getting lucky” and having things fall into my lap.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m an artist specializing in photorealistic sprint car painting- I work with acrylic paint because I love how easily it blends and how fast it dries. I work off of reference pictures, so I can get a lot of really small detail packed into a painting, which is probably what I’m most proud of in my work as well. I’ve put a lot of time into practicing shading and intricate details- things that a viewer doesn’t necessarily notice when they look at the painting but it’s those tiny things that bring the whole image together! Each painting takes roughly three weeks to finish, so lots of time and love in each piece! I think in such a digital world these days, people appreciate that my work is done by hand instead of on a computer.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I’ve noticed a lot of people joining the creative side of motorsports in the past few years, whether it be photographers/videographers, graphic designers, or physical artists like myself. I think so many people fighting for the same amount of clients (drivers, teams, or even fans to market their work to) really pushes people to better themselves, and that can be an incredibly fun space of sharing of ideas and inspiration, so long as people leave their egos aside and are open to working together instead of competing! I only know a handful of other motorsports artists that work solely in physical mediums opposed to digital, and I hope more people go that route in the future- there’s something so beautiful and irreplaceable about taking the time to create something with your hands instead of using a computer.
Pricing:
- Original Paintings- $1,200 and up
- Paper Prints- $40-60
- Canvas Prints- $200
Contact Info:
- Website: annikakoserart.com
- Instagram: @annikakoser_art
- Facebook: Annika Koser Art
- Twitter: @annikakoser_art
