Leslie Coston - Creative Business Services

11/30/2025

These 2 landscapes—“Further Along the Trail” and “Edge of the Creek”— are imagined places. I love using acrylic paint to layer and shape light, land, and water, creating scenes that feel real.

I’m excited these are currently at the Small Works show at in Fayetteville. There’s something inspiring and energizing about sharing space with so many talented artists! Hope you can drop by for a visit.

Left: “Further Along the Trail”
Right: “Edge of the Creek”
Both are 4 x 4 inches on watercolor paper

09/09/2023

Hey artist friends!

When you run a creative business, tackling a mile-long to-do list designed to move you closer to your goals, yet you’re still feeling stressed and overwhelmed about money… Come to this Art Brand Alliance talk!

In this free event, tax and money expert (and fellow artist!) Hannah Cole will lay out her game-changing strategies for changing your mindset and transforming money into an ally instead of an obstacle.

I love being part of the Art Brand Alliance. This talk is exactly the kind of amazing programming they offer year round for members. Join for this free presentation to get a feel for the ABA! Register here:
https://artbrandalliance.com/money-mindset-hannah-cole-register

02/20/2022

Hey creative business owners!! Art Brand Alliance is offering this free workshop Thurs Feb 24th. Visit https://linktr.ee/artbrandalliance to sign up! Some of the topics covered will be:

During this workshop you’ll learn how to:
✅ Identify publications and editors relevant to your business and creative work
✅ Start building a media contacts lists including the exact info you should be adding to it
✅ Make sure your images are media-ready and support your story
✅ Come up with compelling story angles to pitch press features about your work
✅ Make sure your website is optimized so you will appeal to editors and clients alike

08/29/2019

Sharing a new favorite! This Raw Sienna acrylic ink is so versatile. I’ve been creating a lot of little landscapes lately and can’t imagine painting them without it. Mixed with blues it creates such rich, deep greens. Can’t wait to try it on some fall foliage colors!

01/02/2018

Happy 2018! I don’t make resolutions anymore, but these at least could be fun, and helpful! ☀️🎊 - which one would you try?

Feel like you start the new year ready to reinvent your life, only to find that, a month later, you’ve given up on everything and are living a life that’s totally indistinguishable from last year?…

08/22/2017

Great mobile resources for your creative business from Facebook's Mobile Studio! Do you already use any of these tools/tips & tricks? I've recently started using Videoshop

https://www.facebook.com/business/e/mobile_studio

08/21/2017

As if I needed more incentives for doodling! 😁

Doodling, coloring, and free-drawing increase blood flow to the parts of the brain associated with reward.

07/31/2017

"Self care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel." - Eleanor Brown.
This is a great reminder to take care of yourself, not just for freelancers!

When you are juggling projects with overlapping deadlines, you sometimes forget other matters — most of the time, your health. Whatever is preventing you from having enough sleep, breaking a sweat, ...

07/31/2017

This year I'm celebrating 3 years of remote work as a freelancer. This is a great tip list from Trello to help you sort through the challenges. My fave:
"If you’re just having a foggy brain day, try some focus exercises to get back on task. If you find yourself getting constantly interrupted by family or coworkers, set aside regular “maker time” and communicate that you don’t want to be interrupted or attend meetings at that time."

New on the blog! 💫

Tips for tackling six big challenges of remote work: http://bit.ly/challengerw

03/14/2017

❄️❄️So it was warm and sunny earlier this week and now... it's snowing here (hello Arkansas Spring?). Staying mostly indoors and pulling images of flowers from my archive just to remind me that warmer days really are on the way! Lovely lilacs, can't wait for the lilacs 💖

02/24/2017

“We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.”
— Kahlil Gibran.
Happy Friday friends!