MEET THE ARTIST: Medford’s Daphne Vantine follows her heart’s desire

Who hasn’t dreamed of leaving their corporate job, or any current job, and following their heart’s desire? Daphne Vantine did just that, leaving a steady, stable job for the unpredictable life of an artist, and she isn’t looking back — not even a little. 

“Eighteen months in, and the crazy thing is it doesn’t feel like that much of a jump,” she said. “It just feels so natural.”

The daughter of an interior decorator, Vantine said she was an art-obsessed kid who was always tinkering with different materials, trying out every medium from pastels to painting to knitting.

But she is also the daughter of two entrepreneurs, and that is what she studied in college. Yet she knew, first hand, that being a business owner is a struggle, and in a twist of fate also discovered she craved stability. 

At the University of Delaware, Vantine said, she was exposed to a lot of the start-up culture. She even went to work for a start-up in Boston, but quickly found it wasn’t for her.

“I needed structure and community,” she said. 

So she went to a larger company, where she spent four and a half years in sales before burning out.

“It’s fast paced,” she said. “Like being on a hamster wheel.”

She remembers the day, a Thursday, in August of 2023 when it hit her that she needed to leave. The following Tuesday she handed in her resignation, with one thought, “maybe the artist life can work,” she said. 

So much for stability

The thing is, “entrepreneurship still fascinated me,” she said. 

Two years prior to jumping ship, Vantine said she felt the need for a more creative outlet.

“I heard about the iPad app, Procreate,” she said. “It seemed a fun way to get a creative outlet without investing in a lot of materials.”

Procreate is a digital art studio, and Vantine said she was quickly hooked on creating digital illustrations. 

“It reminded me of what I loved, creating art,” she said.

Two weeks before she quit, she picked up a set of watercolor paints and spent a few weeks dabbling before landing on gouache (rhymes with squash). Gouache is similar to watercolor but more opaque.

“It’s kind of a happy medium between watercolor and acrylic,” Vantine said. “It’s more fluid like water color but dries fast. A lot of people use it for illustrations.”

Vantine said as soon as she tried it, she knew she’d found her niche.

“I couldn’t believe I spent my creative life not doing this,” she said. 

But that might be because up until then, she’d never heard of it. Gouache dates back to 18th Century France, and while it’s known for rich colors and forgiving nature, it’s also hard to control and, Vantine said, it’s kind of expensive.

“Gouache allows me to paint more crisply, detailed,” she said. “The other great thing is it can be reactivated with water.”

Landscapes, botanicals and fruit are her favorite things to paint, she said. And her work is rich and bright and layered with an attention to detail, whether it’s adding tiny freckles to her foxgloves or depth to a pint of blueberries. 

Making it work

With a studio set up at home, Vantine now spends her days working social media to get her art and her brand out there, lining up artist market dates and improving her art.

While she likes doing the markets because it puts her face-to-face with potential patrons, they are long days. That’s in part why she is working to grow her online community. It’s also important because financially being an artist is a bit of a roller coaster. 

“Shocker,” she said, with a laugh.

January through March is quiet in terms of art markets and fairs, so she spends that time inventorying stock, seeing what sold, and promoting herself through social media, including a blog. 

“People love my fruit,” she said. “The strawberry paintings were my best seller.”

Vantine said she knows she’ll never go viral.

“That’s not my meal ticket,” she said.

But she has found that people are interested in hearing about her process and why she makes the pieces she does.

She is also curiously hopeful about one day hanging in local galleries and is exploring art licensing. 

The latter includes connecting with large retailers that would license specific designs for a limited time and scope. For instance, a company might lease her painting of a petite pansy in a teacup with white feverfew accent and put it on a tote bag or cards or simply market it as a framed print. 

“I would do it carefully,” she added. 

And Vantine loves to do commissions.

“I did about 10 last year and I’d like to expand on that,” she said. 

But in the end, Vantine said her real goal is simply to have a family and continue to do art. 

She is lucky in that her family is 100% supportive, she said. 

“Which is so crazy to me,” she added. “I haven’t had any push back … they had more faith in me than I did.”

She counts herself very lucky because, she said, she has artist friends that have not had that kind of support and it does make a difference.

“My husband, mom and sister all said, ‘You were destined for this,’” she said.

Which is good, because there isn’t any other path Vantine cares to take.  

Find her on Instagram at Daphne Rae Vantine | Artist (@daphneraecreative) • Instagram photos and videos and at Daphne Rae Creative | Boston Artist.

Are you a local artist, or do you know an artist you think we should meet? Email us at gottaknowmedford@gmail.com!