It Started With a Doodle a Day

By Liz Neighbors | Liz Neighbors Studios

I want to tell you how this whole thing started.

A while back, I made myself one simple promise: do art every day. Not to sell anything, not to build a business…just for me. For the pure joy of it. The same joy I had at ten years old, drawing rows of tulips on a manila folder for a school report about the Netherlands because I thought, you know, it needed a little pizazz. The teacher gave me extra credit. Lesson learned! When in doubt, make it pretty. Lol.

So I started doing art every day. And then one day, on a total whim, a dare to myself, really, I started sharing a doodle a day on Facebook.

I was terrified.

I didn't look at the comments for two whole weeks. Not exaggerating. Complete scaredy cat. Putting your real, from-the-heart art out there for people to see is vulnerable in a way that's hard to describe…you pour something true into a painting and then you just…hand it to the world and hope for the best.

Finally one day I looked.

And I cried.

Friends, family, friends of friends ... everyone was so kind. And then the messages started coming in. Can I buy a print? Do you make notecards? Can you do something custom?

Just like that, Liz Neighbors Studios was a real thing.

My art was featured in Cape Cod Life magazine, which led to a custom request for a Falmouth Dog Park painting…which led to more connections, more custom pieces, more of the most wonderful people finding their way to my little shop. It still blows my mind, honestly. To think it all started because I committed to doing something everyday, just for the love of it, and dared to share it.

Art connects. That's the thing I keep coming back to. Every time. A stranger at the boatyard turns into a small world story. A custom order turns into a new friendship. A print ships to a beach house in Florida and someone writes to tell me it makes them happy every morning. The world keeps getting smaller and the stories keep getting better.

Today I ship original paintings, fine art prints, and notecards to Cape Cod, Connecticut, New York, Florida…all over the place. Every order gets packed with care ... it goes out like the little gift it is, because that's what it is.

Abstracts bursting with color. Coastal and Cape Cod prints. Custom pieces for the places and moments that matter. Notecard sets that make the most personal, thoughtful little gift. I still do art every day. I still share it. And I still get a tiny bit nervous every time I do…which I think means it still means something.

To everyone who has ever bought a print, shared a post, left a sweet comment, sent a note: thank you. From the bottom of my heart. You gave me the gift of doing what I love every single day. I don't take that lightly for a second.

Shop the full collection → [lizneighborsstudios.com]

And if you're a fellow creative sitting on something, too scared to share it…dare yourself. Just start. You really truly never know. 🩷

Xo Liz

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