Interview by Alice Armitage Photography by Alice Armitage

Lottie Rae is the epitome of ‘so hot right now’, but what has made this country kid with no formal training such a sought-after contemporary artist?

“I knew if I was going to live here and raise my family I wanted there to be something for me. I had always dabbled in painting and thought maybe I could do something in that field.”

Can you start at the beginning? How old are you?

I’m thirty-one., I grew up in Narromine and now live in Trangie.

And you have little kids?

Yeah, two boys. Well, they’re not that little. Ted is eight and Jimmy is three but they’re completely unhinged in the best way. Throw my husband Ned in the mix and it’s just a whole other kind of life just having boys. It’s a lot, but it’s fun.

You got started young ...

Ted was a big surprise. I was twenty-two and found out I was pregnant two days before we flew to Europe for an eight-week trip planned around Oktoberfest. Everyone else we went with had a great time, but I was so sick that it really wasn’t fun for me! It might be an unusual opinion, but getting started with kids young has been great for my career. Most of our generation are putting it off for as long as possible to achieve as much as they can before they get stuck into having kids but I just had to make it all work, but now my kids are a bit older and I’m still young and ready to get to work on the next thing and get to enjoy my kids as well.

You had your previous business, The Studio Trangie, when Ted was little right?

Ted was one when I opened The Studio, I didn’t think much about having a small child being a deterrent. I’m a hustler by nature – sleep when you’re dead is the mantra of my life – so I just kept trying to make it all work. I did it all with Ted in tow. It wasn’t all easy and I definitely made some shit calls and missed out on things as a mum and a business owner. But I felt like if I wanted it all, I had to do it all. Jimmy was born on the first of January, I had him at 11:30 in the morning and I was home by 4:30 that afternoon. I went to work with him the next day. It definitely wasn’t easy, but I made it work.

You know that’s insane, right?

Having kids isn’t a phenomenon, we’ve been doing it for thousands of years, but it is really hard. I had the urge to keep working. I was my own boss, so I had the luxury of being able to choose to take my kids with me all the time. I had a lot of family support and the childcare here in Trangie is amazing. I’m really lucky that it all worked out. Sometimes it feels like if you put the pen down and the world moves on – it’s hard to keep up.

Tell me more about how The Studio came about.

I moved out here to Trangie to be with my husband Ned, we had a little family and I had no formal training. I knew if I was going to live here and raise my family I wanted there to be something for me. I had always dabbled in painting and thought maybe I could do something in that field. Then when my beautiful grandma passed away, she left me fifteen thousand dollars. One night I walked out of the pub for a smoke and was looking in the window of this building. Completely derelict, abandoned and absolutely trashed. The next day I asked around, got the number of the lady that owned the building and asked her if I could buy it. I paid nine thousand dollars for it.

What were you planning on doing with it?

The original idea was for the building to be an art studio. We bought it cheap but I can’t understate how run down it was – we had to put a lot of money into it. I started painting there and everyone would call in and say hi. I had a little coffee machine in the corner so everyone visiting could take a seat and have a cuppa. Then it accidentally turned into a full-fledged cafe. After that, a full-fledged fashion boutique. And finally, I was somehow employing four people to help me run it.

How did the transition out of that business and back to making art full-time happen for you?

I sold The Studio in March this year with the intention to paint full-time The art thing had always been in the back of my mind, but it felt like the first time I was in a position to really have a crack at it.

It’s all kind of working out for you, but at the time did it feel like you were taking a huge risk?

I have a pretty high threshold when it comes to taking risks, which is sometimes great and sometimes not so great. Taking risks can be a bit of a superpower and gives me the freedom to try new things. I have it built into me. I’m also very aware that taking risks now is a lot easier to do for me because I am financially sound. I would never have been able to take the same risks back when I first started out. It took ten years of working really hard to make that happen. Now, I can push the boundaries a bit harder and know that if it doesn’t work out I’m not fucked.

Your husband Ned is a farmer, what do you feel like your relationship is between his work and yours?

I think a lot of farmers’ wives find it hard to prioritise their work when there is an assumption that the farm needs to take priority. This is usually because the farm is the biggest financial contributor to the household. For Ned and I, we are both pursuing our passions and that can sometimes make it tricky to juggle our responsibilities at home. Like all businesses, we have periods that are chaotic and consume a lot more of your time. The farm, for sure, demands a lot more since the work is often time- sensitive. But now a lot of the time my work is too. I’d be lying if I said there aren’t arguments in my house about ‘who gets to go to work today’, but we are a good team and we both give each business the respect it deserves. It also helps that I’ve gotten to a place where I’m financially competitive with the farm.

Do you think that everything you did to make The Studio work has allowed you to build the skills that you need to actually make you commercially viable as an artist?

Without a doubt. It was basically a six-year apprenticeship. I did everything myself and if there was something I didn’t know the answer to, I would keep googling until I figured it out. I truly believe the artist gig is going so well because of the failures I had at The Studio and the way I learnt to overcome all the shit you face along the way.

Do you think you could ever go back to a ‘normal’ job working for someone else?

I’ve done that and it’s just not for me. I think it’s a burden that all creatives carry. You either have to suppress that urge to be creative or you have to embrace it and take the gamble.

Perhaps creatives are never really satisfied?

For real! Don’t get me wrong, I’m so satisfied with where I am right now and so grateful that it worked out. But I’m also constantly thinking, what’s next? Where am I pushing this? Where am I going with this? I want to keep doing this forever and you can’t just sit on your initial success and hope that it’s all going to keep working out for you.

I want to talk to you about the perception of failure and success, particularly around your decision to sell The Studio. Did that feel like a failure in any way to you?
No, not one bit. I haven’t looked back. I think people forget that I was there for eight years. Maybe they found us on Instagram once that started to take off and had been following along for ten minutes. I’d been having conversations with Ned about it for about eighteen months before I finally decided it was time to move on. So it wasn’t something I did lightly and I knew, in the end, it was definitely the right decision for me.

For anyone in a small business or following a creative pursuit it feels like there is a lot of hesitation around building a brand around oneself. Especially in the country, where the judgement from the small community can be fierce. How have you felt about really putting yourself out there for both of your businesses?

Everyone will judge you until it works, right? Building a brand around myself, particularly
in a small town was fucking terrifying especially in environments where judgment may be harsh. However, my experience has been a blend of both challenges and rewards. Initially, the thought of putting myself out there was intimidating. I worried about how my brand would be received and what people would think. However, I soon realised that authenticity and transparency are critical to connecting with my audience. By being genuine and sharing my story, I was able to build trust and foster a community that resonated with my values and vision and that then led to sales. Putting myself out there in front of my business had a really positive impact on my business. Of course, there has been some not-so-welcome feedback. But putting myself out there is what pays my bills, so I’m okay with that.

With the kind of business that you’re building, you’d also be crazy not to understand that building an online presence is what allows you to get in-front of a wider audience which is essential for your survival right?

Eighty-five per cent of my sales are coming straight from the United States at the moment. None of that would be happening if I hadn’t put myself out there online. But, ultimately, everything I put online comes back to the art I’m making and I’m proudly representing things I feel are quintessentially Australian. I paint it all with respect and great love and I think that comes through in everything I put out.

Where do you draw inspiration from? And how do you get perspective on the world?

I owe a lot of that to my parents who, firstly, gave us a sick childhood. Very classic Australian, raised in the back of the pub, in the back of the car with a packet of chips, constantly around new people. Always outside, going skiing and all the other fun things. Then they broke their backs to send us to boarding school. I went to St. Vincent’s College in the heart of Sydney. Immediately, I had the advantage of seeing what was beyond the four walls of Narromine. Then I was fortunate enough to travel quite a lot. You absorb so much from travel. I was once walking down a street in Japan and saw a cool shop and started following them on Instagram. Now, I get to see that shop and all of the awesome things they do from Trangie. All of those things help you remember there is a big wide world out there.

It seems everything you touch turns to gold. What would you say to someone who might think your success comes down to luck?

I work my fingers to the bone. That side of things just doesn’t look as good on Instagram. The hustle, the risks and the flops all lead to success, but those things aren’t visible to the world most of the time. I’m not just out here yolo-ing all the time. I’m constantly educating myself and working to make it all a success – none of it just happens.

There is a huge gift you’re giving people, particularly regional kids. You’re showing them what’s possible out here, which goes back to the idea that you can’t be what you can’t see. You did that with The Studio and now you’re doing that with your art.

I love that because I think everyone deserves to know that their postcode shouldn’t limit what they can do. A young girl recently messaged to tell me the way I present art and what it means to be an artist changed her perception of an industry she always thought was boring and snobby. If that’s how I’m being perceived, then I couldn’t be happier.

This question is a bit of a selfish one. I want to know what advice you’d give to someone – me – who is currently really struggling to navigate the day-to-day responsibilities of keeping a business afloat and still making time and space to be creative. I’m so bogged down in keeping things afloat that I’m giving no oxygen to my creative spark. It’s a really hard juggle and it’s not going super well for me. I know that if I keep it up the business and the work we put out will ultimately suffer.

That’s a good question and I totally get how challenging it can be to balance the practical aspects of running a business with nurturing your creative spirit. It’s important to realise that your audience – whether they are followers, subscribers, family or friends – can sense when your passion is missing from your work. If you’re just going through the motions, it becomes evident to everyone.

Obviously, everyone has to handle the shitty tasks that keep your business running, but it’s equally important to carve out time for activities that inspire you. Taking time to get back to the things you love isn’t just a luxury; it’s vital for maintaining your overall wellbeing and the health of your business. When you prioritise your creative needs, it positively impacts all other areas of your work.

I’ve personally experienced this balance in my own life. If I spend too much time on boring tasks like packing orders and admin, it totally destroys my creativity and my work suffers. But when I give myself the space to create and explore, it brings new energy into everything I do. I think it’s important to remember that finding that balance isn’t just about surviving – it’s about thriving. Without that creative spark, we lose sight of the very reason we started in the first place.