EVENTS BASE MEMBERSHIP 30-DAY FREE TRIAL
Live Panel: How to Build an Art Business Without Burning Out
Thursday, October 1st
11am–12pm MDT
1–2pm EDT
6–7pm BST
3–4am AEST (Friday)
Mentors: Leena Al Ayoobi & Claire Hankey
$19.00
Free For Mastrius Members.
Are you trying to grow your art business without letting it take over your creative life?
For artists who choose to sell their work, making art is only one part of the picture. There can also be marketing, social media, galleries, applications, website updates, communicating with collectors, keeping up with opportunities, and somehow finding enough uninterrupted time to actually get into the studio.
And while building an art business can open doors, it can also create a lot of pressure & expectation.
How do you grow the business side of your practice without letting sales, trends, algorithms, or other people’s expectations start determining what you make, why you make it, or how you work?
In this special LIVE & INTERACTIVE event, Leena Al Ayoobi & Claire Hankey will explore practical ways you can manage your time and build a business system that protects your creative freedom & control.
We’ll talk about different approaches working artists use to get things done, where to spend time and save time, and how to intentionally create boundaries around your creative passion and joy.
You’ll learn how to:
- Protect your creative freedom, independence, and control while building an art business
- Identify tasks taking up too much time and gain more time for making art
- Create a system to organize and schedule your studio time
- Keep sales, marketing, trends, and people’s expectations from having too much influence over what, why, and how you create
- Build boundaries between your creative practice and the business surrounding it
There’s more than one way to build an art practice and it doesn’t have to cost you your creative freedom or joy.
Join us and learn from artists who have walked the road before you, learned the hard lessons, and are willing to share them so you don’t have to learn the hard way.
Come get inspired & encouraged and leave with practical tips you can put into practice today.
🎟 Tickets ONLY $19 | FREE for Mastrius Members
🎙️ Event recording is available for Mastrius Members only.
👉 Get a FREE MEMBERSHIP HERE with the Base Membership Free Trial
Meet Leena Al Ayoobi
Acrylic | Digital | Mixed Media | Oil | Watercolor
Leena Al Ayoobi is a Bahraini contemporary artist whose practice spans painting, illustration, printmaking, and digital art. Her work is recognized for its distinctive visual language, drawing inspiration from women, identity, Gulf culture, and the changing way we experience the world around us.
Leena has exhibited her work locally and internationally while continually evolving her practice and exploring new mediums. Her willingness to experiment also led her into the digital art and NFT space, where she later hosted NFT MENA, a first-of-its-kind NFT exhibition in the MENA region.
Her latest body of work, Fluid Perspective, marks a new chapter in her practice, exploring shifting viewpoints and the idea that there is never only one way to see or experience an image.
Alongside her studio practice, Leena is passionate about sharing the practical knowledge she has gained from building an independent artistic career—from developing an authentic visual identity and navigating exhibitions and opportunities to understanding the business and professional side of being a working artist. As a mentor, she encourages artists to develop their own voice rather than follow a predetermined path.
Meet Claire Hankey
Acrylic | Mixed Media
Claire is a British mixed media artist and printmaker based in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. Her practice spans painting, monotype, photopolymer etching, drypoint, photographic collage and image transfer, with botanical forms, weathered surfaces and the quiet details of the natural world as recurring subjects throughout.
Rooted in atmospheric painting, her practice has evolved significantly through printmaking following a residency at The Art Print Residence, Barcelona, in 2026, to which she returns this September. She holds a BA (Hons) in Art History from University College London and a PGCE in Art Education from Anglia Polytechnic University, and has been teaching art for over twenty years.
Claire is represented by the Circus Gallery in the UK and has taken part in prestigious exhibitions including the Wells Contemporary, the Britten Pears Summer Contemporary, the Society of Women Artists exhibition at Mall Galleries in London, and the Ironbridge International Printmakers exhibition. Her work is held in private collections in the UK and internationally.