My Story & Journey To Becoming an Artist with By Kerwin
Thanks for visiting my website and business, By Kerwin. As a UK artist, I’m pleased to have developed my own unique style of pop art painting and grown this into a successful global art business. Below I share a brief look into my journey to becoming an artist, beginning with my love of painting as a child, through my school years and onto studying at business school, and then the work experiences that led to me starting my e-commerce art brand as a largely self-taught artist.
You can also find more information about myself and art business, By Kerwin, on my About Me page. While you’re here, do check out my online shop with my full range of acrylic action paintings and canvas pop art prints, as well as my Exhibitions page, painting videos, and blog. Feel free to contact me too with any questions, ideas, or feedback you may have!
Kerwin Blackburn (b.1993, UK) | Founder, Owner & Artist, By Kerwin
Early Beginnings
Born in Norwich, England on 25 October 1993, my earliest memories of painting are at nursery, aged around 2. I always loved the arts & crafts sessions, and remember having a natural flair that would often see me produce the best creations in the shortest time.
Interestingly, at nursery I also enjoyed tidying up at the end, and restoring order after the chaos of crafting! Perhaps this was an early indicator of my organisational skills and conscientiousness that have enabled me to build and grow ‘By Kerwin’ all these years later, as well as the precision with which I like to work.
School Years
My school career began at Langley Preparatory School in Norwich. I then moved to Norwich School at aged 7 in 2001, where I would stay for the remainder of my school years, through GCSEs, and completing my A-Levels in 2012.
At A-Level, I studied Economics, Geography and 2D Graphic Design, achieving an ‘A’ and two ‘A*’s respectively. I feel these subject choices reflect my three core passions; business, art, also learning about the world and the people within it.
(Interestingly, I chose to study 2D Design over fine art at both A-Level and even GCSE; I figured that I could pursue my painting passion on my own accord and that 2D Design would teach me the digital skills that would be important to learn and benefit me down the line.)
University Career
After finishing school in Norwich in 2012, I moved to Manchester, where I chose to study BSc (Hons) International, Business, Finance and Economics at the University of Manchester.
My First Business: Kerwin Art Collections Ltd
The summer just before beginning university, I launched my first small art business, ‘Kerwin Art Collections Limited’. The goal was to gain some first-hand entrepreneurial experience to aid my upcoming studies of business and economics – and building this around my painting ability seemed a good fit. This was in operation for around one year, and saw me produce a range of seascape paintings, exhibit at a couple of Norwich art fairs and sell some artwork.
Three years later, I graduated with a 2:1 in 2015, and a grounding in many key business-related areas, from financial accounting to marketing to HR to micro and macro-economics.
Growing up, I knew I wanted to create my own business one day, and this degree was the a step in gaining the skillset to enable that. I continued painting on the side during holiday periods.
Having gained some initial work experiences in industries such as management consultancy and insolvency, in 2017 I headed to the UK’s capital to enroll on my Master’s degree programme. I joined King’s College London, where I studied international development – full title MSc Emerging Economies & Inclusive Development – between 2017-18, graduating with Distinction.
Move to Singapore, 2018
Following this degree, and with ambitions to experience living abroad for the first time, I moved to Singapore in September 2018. Having found this opportunity through my King’s College London degree, I began working in an internship at a start-up there, which was an e-commerce florist and gifting business.
This was an invaluable experience, both culturally, personally and professionally. I learnt for the first time about e-commerce – a skillset which I would later use to the launch of my own business. While in Singapore I began painting again for the first time in a couple of years, and developed my own unique style of pop art portrait ‘action’ painting.
Following my year-and-a-bit experience in Singapore, I moved back to the UK in late 2019 and launched my own e-commerce business, By Kerwin’. With an initial 12 paintings, I launched my online shop.
The Pandemic Period and Growing By Kerwin
When Covid-19 hit just a few months later, I suddenly had a lot of time to devote to growing my new art business. In March 2020 I actually began a new career, working in international trade and development at an investment agency in Manchester, UK.
As the unfortunate timing with Covid meant I was unable to actually move to Manchester and meet a single new colleague, a few months later I decided to devote all my time to growing my art business, which had gained some early traction. By using all of the lockdown periods to build a large body of paintings and also learn key e-commerce skills such as Facebook Advertising, coding and video production, I was able to significantly grow my new art business.
I began exhibiting my paintings and artwork in-between lockdowns, first in Norwich in December 2020 and then in London multiple times in 2021. Each of these milestones and successes acted as a springboard for me to attempt more ambitious and prestigious exhibitions, including organising large solo exhibitions in Norwich and a first international art show in New York in 2022. I was also gaining further experience, insights and confidence in myself and my business with each step.
Developing My ‘By Kerwin’ Style of Painting
After hundreds of hours of painting, my painting and drawing abilities also naturally improved, which has allowed me to create more ambitious and intricate paintings over time, and to continue refining my unique style of pop art paintings. You can learn more about the creative process behind my unique style of acrylic pop art-infused action painting style here.
All of this has led to what you see on this website www.bykerwin.com today – my large range of original acrylic paintings which are for sale or available to purchase as premium canvas prints with fast worldwide delivery, and collection of clothing and merchandise.
You can also view my previous exhibitions online, interviews with me, my exciting painting videos showing the behind-the-scenes of my process, and also my online blog, Confessions of a Pop Artist which I launched in 2023. In my blog, I cover many topics; from discussing my art influences, pop art and music art, and the story of how I built By Kerwin.
Thank you for visiting By Kerwin, I hope you enjoy and take something away from your visit! Please do also say Hi or ask any questions that you may have for me, either via email or through Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
Any feedback, queries, ideas, suggestions – and of course orders – are massively appreciated. I am also available for commissions. Just get in touch!
Happy exploring!
Kerwin
View my full range of Jackson Pollock-inspired pop art paintings, and shop premium canvas prints of your favourite music and pop culture icons at www.bykerwin.com. High-definition Giclée printing, fast worldwide delivery and satisfaction guaranteed.
