creative highlight
MEMBER from our community
ANNA HAMILL
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I’m Anna, an illustrator, stationery designer and hand lettered based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I am the founder of And Hope Designs (the name is from Romans 5:5 - and hope does not put us to shame…) which launched in 2020 and I sell greetings cards, notebooks, prints and gift wrap as well as letterbox gifts. I also take commissions for watercolour paintings, most often homes and wedding venues. I am a wife and mother of four young children who keep me on my toes and thankfully love to join me on a post run.
Website: www.andhopedesigns.com
Instagram: @andhopedesigns
Website: www.andhopedesigns.com
Instagram: @andhopedesigns
Can you tell us about your introduction to art? How did you know you had a creative gift?
I’ve been told for as long as I can remember that I’m artsy and creative. In fact, I don’t really remember an introduction to art - it’s just always been in me. I’ve had opportunities to explore many different art forms. Growing up in France, I had art lessons in secondary school for 2 hours a week and we got to experiment with so many things - charcoal, gouache, sketching, clay… as well as doing a fair amount of art history. My own art has taken different shapes over the years and has only recently landed in its current favorite form of watercolor painting and hand lettering.
Did you ever think you'd be selling your art or teaching art?
No! I thought I’d be working with children in some shape or form; I wanted to be a primary school teacher, then a midwife, then I considered doing some kind of work involving genetics. A photography hobby became a business as friends asked me to photograph their weddings, and suddenly I was selling my services as a creative. The Covid restrictions put a bit of a break on that as weddings stopped almost overnight, but I still had the urge to create. I picked up my paints and taught myself hand lettering, and here I am with a second creative business selling my art! I often pinch myself when I receive an order. It’s just amazing to me that this is my life.
What are your favorite ways to express your creativity?
Filling a sketchbook with little illustrations and descriptions of vacation days, lettering a Bible verse or a short sentence, using pastel brushes on my iPad to create a landscape or cityscape or sky illustration and watercolor painting an incredible building. I also still really love photographing the beauty and simplicity of everyday and of big life events.
I’ve been told for as long as I can remember that I’m artsy and creative. In fact, I don’t really remember an introduction to art - it’s just always been in me. I’ve had opportunities to explore many different art forms. Growing up in France, I had art lessons in secondary school for 2 hours a week and we got to experiment with so many things - charcoal, gouache, sketching, clay… as well as doing a fair amount of art history. My own art has taken different shapes over the years and has only recently landed in its current favorite form of watercolor painting and hand lettering.
Did you ever think you'd be selling your art or teaching art?
No! I thought I’d be working with children in some shape or form; I wanted to be a primary school teacher, then a midwife, then I considered doing some kind of work involving genetics. A photography hobby became a business as friends asked me to photograph their weddings, and suddenly I was selling my services as a creative. The Covid restrictions put a bit of a break on that as weddings stopped almost overnight, but I still had the urge to create. I picked up my paints and taught myself hand lettering, and here I am with a second creative business selling my art! I often pinch myself when I receive an order. It’s just amazing to me that this is my life.
What are your favorite ways to express your creativity?
Filling a sketchbook with little illustrations and descriptions of vacation days, lettering a Bible verse or a short sentence, using pastel brushes on my iPad to create a landscape or cityscape or sky illustration and watercolor painting an incredible building. I also still really love photographing the beauty and simplicity of everyday and of big life events.
How do you encounter the Lord in your creativity?
My art often comes out of a place of closeness with the Lord. My prayer times or a specific Bible verse jumping out at me will regularly spark an idea or cause me to design something with those words. Creating is a form of worship and I find it spilling out of me like a song of thankfulness.
What do you feel God is calling you to in this season with your creativeness?
Grow. That is my word for the year. In all ways. I want to grow in what I offer to give opportunities for people to send love, encouragement and care to each other in each circumstance and season of life. I’ve been able to send a set of my This I Know (6 affirmations about God) postcards to a 30-something lady who is receiving palliative care in a hospice. There have been numerous stories people have told of how one of my cards or notebooks was just a huge blessing and came at the right time. Following His lead and taking every opportunity to share Him.
Some practical steps you'd encourage other creatives to take to become productive and learn business skills etc.?
Find a Christian mentor or mentoring group who can help you with things like marketing, putting systems and processes in place, and all the other more boring but actually fundamental things you’ll need to grow. I was part of the business and mentoring group called the Cheerful Business Club run by Cheerfully Given for about 18 months and it has been so so helpful.
Is it costly to be a creative/artist?
It is costly in terms of time and energy, but it doesn’t have to be costly financially. That said, time is a non-deniable resource, so it is costly, and deciding how to spend time can be tricky.
How do you juggle your business/family/social time?
Do you have a team of people that help you or you're just going step by step?
With great difficulty! I’ll have inspired seasons when I have no desire to be social, only to work. But I also have 4 children aged 7 down to 2, and they take up a lot of my time during the day. So work gets relegated to the evenings or nap times. It’s an ongoing struggle and I constantly feel like there’s too much to do and not enough time to do it all.
Any encouraging words, words of wisdom from what you've learned to help other creatives on their journey to being abundant and thriving artists/creatives/makers?
Make sure you have your priorities right. If you are a spouse and a parent, those are your primary responsibilities. Your art must fit around that. Your art can be included in that, children love crafts generally and making things is a really fun way to bond and make memories.
My favorite Bible verse: 2 chronicles 20:12 says, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” If you fix your eyes on Jesus, take every aspect of your art and business to him, seek his will and follow His lead, you cannot go wrong.
It might be slow, but there will be a reason for that. It may be to teach you something specific, it may be so you meet someone who needs something from you, it may be a whole host of things, and it may be for reasons you’ll not find out this side of heaven. But keep following Him, fixing your eyes on what is unseen and you will be right where God wants you.
And practice, practice, practice. There will be lots of bad art.
My art often comes out of a place of closeness with the Lord. My prayer times or a specific Bible verse jumping out at me will regularly spark an idea or cause me to design something with those words. Creating is a form of worship and I find it spilling out of me like a song of thankfulness.
What do you feel God is calling you to in this season with your creativeness?
Grow. That is my word for the year. In all ways. I want to grow in what I offer to give opportunities for people to send love, encouragement and care to each other in each circumstance and season of life. I’ve been able to send a set of my This I Know (6 affirmations about God) postcards to a 30-something lady who is receiving palliative care in a hospice. There have been numerous stories people have told of how one of my cards or notebooks was just a huge blessing and came at the right time. Following His lead and taking every opportunity to share Him.
Some practical steps you'd encourage other creatives to take to become productive and learn business skills etc.?
Find a Christian mentor or mentoring group who can help you with things like marketing, putting systems and processes in place, and all the other more boring but actually fundamental things you’ll need to grow. I was part of the business and mentoring group called the Cheerful Business Club run by Cheerfully Given for about 18 months and it has been so so helpful.
Is it costly to be a creative/artist?
It is costly in terms of time and energy, but it doesn’t have to be costly financially. That said, time is a non-deniable resource, so it is costly, and deciding how to spend time can be tricky.
How do you juggle your business/family/social time?
Do you have a team of people that help you or you're just going step by step?
With great difficulty! I’ll have inspired seasons when I have no desire to be social, only to work. But I also have 4 children aged 7 down to 2, and they take up a lot of my time during the day. So work gets relegated to the evenings or nap times. It’s an ongoing struggle and I constantly feel like there’s too much to do and not enough time to do it all.
Any encouraging words, words of wisdom from what you've learned to help other creatives on their journey to being abundant and thriving artists/creatives/makers?
Make sure you have your priorities right. If you are a spouse and a parent, those are your primary responsibilities. Your art must fit around that. Your art can be included in that, children love crafts generally and making things is a really fun way to bond and make memories.
My favorite Bible verse: 2 chronicles 20:12 says, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” If you fix your eyes on Jesus, take every aspect of your art and business to him, seek his will and follow His lead, you cannot go wrong.
It might be slow, but there will be a reason for that. It may be to teach you something specific, it may be so you meet someone who needs something from you, it may be a whole host of things, and it may be for reasons you’ll not find out this side of heaven. But keep following Him, fixing your eyes on what is unseen and you will be right where God wants you.
And practice, practice, practice. There will be lots of bad art.