It is very easy for artists and self-employed people to get trapped in their own week-to-week experience, and lose track of the big picture. I fall into this bias all the time, and this is why I like taking the end of the year to reflect on what I accomplished. Previous goals remind me where I was headed, and I can see how far I have come.

But it’s hard to judge the progress I’ve made in 2025, when my life has taken some unexpected turns. I am now on a different path, and in some aspects, far beyond what I could have hoped for a year ago.

In this post, I’ll review the entire year: from my initial goals to the unexpected developments, my art and art studies in 2025, and my greatest, bittersweet takeaway.

Following My Own Goals

When it comes to goals, it’s important to differentiate the intent from the specifics. This isn’t always clear when we formulate and set them, but becomes important when new circumstances make the specifics of a goal irrelevant or even counterproductive. This is what happened for one of the goals I formulated for 2025: I didn’t work towards it the way I planned, but ultimately accomplished its intent.

I formulated three major goals for 2025.

Goal #1: Being More Intentional with My Art Practice

At the end of 2024, I completed the Drawing Foundations module at New Masters Academy, a personal achievement after a year and three months of intense dedicated studies. I had just discovered the power of note taking for myself, and this goal was formulated from a place of needing to grow from being an art student to becoming an artist. I was at a point where I couldn’t just follow a structure anymore, I felt more acutely than ever the need for my courses and practice to serve my own artistic vision.

I planned to be more intentional by:

Taking more notes (for my courses, assignments, personal art, everywhere);
Keeping the studio journal I had started;
Choosing my courses more intentionally.

My studio journal has changed shape, I am now keeping it on paper, but I have fostered my note taking habit. When it comes to choosing my courses better, the truth is that my studies slowed down drastically after completing the Drawing Foundations module: I have only taken live classes and invested more of my time and energy into my personal practice, which I would say was an intentional decision.

Goal #2: Keep Exploring My Own Artistic Interests

Looking at it now, this goal is really part of the first one, « being more intentional with my art practice », but it was so significant last year that I thought of it as a goal of its own. This is because I had put my personal practice aside for so long that following my own interests wasn’t natural for me, so I decided to focus on it by:

• Keeping a master study practice through the year;

• Having ongoing personal projects at all times;

• Attending one workshop related to my personal interests.

When I formulated that goal, I was in the middle of a 100 days of Master Studies challenge and wanted to keep the practice alive after the challenge; that didn’t happen! I took the challenge very intensely until the end, without a day off. I took a lot out of it and wouldn’t do it any differently, but that wasn’t the way to start a long term habit or practice, and after it I needed a break.

However, I did work on personal projects through the year and attended more than one workshop: the first one I planned was a figure drawing workshop with Glenn Vilppu in Paris, an opportunity I didn’t want to miss, having no idea I’d learn from him again at New Masters Village a few months later. I was also lucky to take Aaron Blaise’s retreat there, a very unexpected opportunity. I also followed my interest for jewellery, visiting the Dessins de bijoux exhibition at Le Petit Palais in May and taking a fun short enamelling workshop in November with L’École Van Cleef & Arpels.

And getting into 2026, I also have a watercolour botanical painting workshop booked in February! Overall, this is an accomplished goal, but the best part is how mundane it feels now: exploring my own artistic interests has become my new normal, as it should remain.

Goal #3: Paying Attention to My Wellbeing

This goal shows me how much my life has changed better than anything else. When I decided to « pay more attention to my wellbeing », I was balancing a lot of activities:

Managing a small business with products to design, an online shop to run, and its own Instagram & Youtube accounts;
Teaching an in person sketching class every Saturday morning;
Growing my art Youtube channel with one video per week, plus Instagram content;
Making moves to transition to a more art related business;
Studying art for 20 hours a week;
Keeping up with the 100 Days of Master Studies challenge;
Trying to develop my personal artistic practice…

No wonder I felt overworked! So my plan was to go to the park regularly, make sure to walk every day, plan time for rest and weekend outings, and introducing some distractions like movies and series into my life to unwind.

None of that happened, I might have walked a lot but didn’t properly track it; however, my wellbeing is much better now than it was a year ago. This is where the intention of a goal matters more than the specifics: paying more attention to my wellbeing was indeed very important, but I got the specifics wrong.

What made the greatest difference wasn’t adding walks, outings and series, but reducing the weight I carried every week; and that was made possible through a series of unexpected developments.

All the Unexpected Developments

In January 2025, one of my YouTube videos got a lot more views than usual, and it was the start of a domino effect.

At the beginning of the year, I had a call with New Masters Academy that I recognised as a tipping point. Although not much would happen in the near future (I was so busy with my own projects), this moment was important for me: it felt like years of work and putting myself online could finally pay off, something else was possible, I had been noticed. I felt a relief from something I didn’t even know was there: the stress, isolation and resignation built up from 10 years of self employment in France. It was an intense feeling of not being alone anymore.

It might have seemed disproportionate, but the rest of the year confirmed it. One domino at a time, my life turned.

I Had to Close My Small Business

I wanted to close my online store ultimately, but it happened much earlier than I expected. The two previous years when all my energy had been invested in art rather than my brand resulted in it becoming financially unsustainable sooner than I planned, and I closed the shop and sold my inventory at the beginning of the year.

My Membership Project Failed

Since starting my current YouTube channel, I have wanted to use it to transition from my previous business into a more art-related business. I started working on my own membership at the end of 2024, but having to close my previous business forced me to speed up, and I didn’t realise that I wasn’t even able to afford this project anymore, between website and storage costs… There could be many reasons to it, but in short, this membership didn’t work out.

I Started Working for New Masters Academy

We first collaborated on the video series The Artist’s Path, and in June, I started officially working for New Masters Academy. It has been an absolute joy to be part of this team, my work is very rewarding, and it is giving me more freedom for content creation (as I discussed here) as well as how I pursue art (more on that in my next post).

I Became the First Resident Artist at New Masters Village

In Spring, New Masters acquired a new property in Colorado to create their in person art retreat, and I was invited to become the first resident artist at New Masters Village, an honour and an incredible opportunity. So in July, I flew to the US for the very first time and spent the next three months in Colorado, a transformative experience.

I Put YouTube and In Person Teaching Aside

I considered documenting my residency through one or multiple vlogs, but I decided instead to focus on the moment and take as much as I could artistically rather than creating content. It was definitely the right decision, there would have been no time for filming, especially since I also started giving feedback for some NMA classes while in Colorado.

When I came back from the residency, after a week off to readjust to French life, I realised that my schedule was full: I couldn’t teach two Saturday classes on top of it and make YouTube videos without sacrificing my art practice. Because art is the purpose of it all, I decided to stop teaching in person, and put YouTube aside.

My Art in 2025

Every year, I feel like I haven’t done much art-wise, but looking through my folders and notes proves me wrong. Let’s take a chronological look at some the drawings, studies, and projects I’ve worked on this year.

100 Days of Master Studies

From November 2024 to February 2025, I took part in this challenge in the New Masters Academy digital campus with other students. This challenge was decisive in figuring out what I wanted to do, and played a great role in my resolution to be more intentional.

Birds & Flowers Calendar

The master studies challenge planted the seeds from this project: creating a calendar with decorative illustrations featuring one bird and one flower for every month. I worked on it for a good part of the year, but my residency put it on hold.

Learning and Coursework

This year, I have focused exclusively on the live classes Joshua Jacobo is giving to the 2-year program students, as it is a unique opportunity and Joshua’s teaching has been the most influential for me.

Figure Drawing & Sketches

I didn’t go to life drawing regularly in 2025, but between sketches and watercolour explorations, the workshops I took part in, and life drawing sessions at New Masters Village, I ended up drawing a few figures!

Colorado Studies & Sketches

My project during my residency was to develop ornamental designs from the local fauna and flora. This is something I was planning on doing with the plants and animals of my native region of the Alps, so when I was invited to the Village I immediately thought about applying this idea, and it started with a lot of nature studies.

Colorado Products

Unfortunately, I don’t have good photos of the products that we created from my Colorado designs: a collection of enamel pins, bandanas, and a bookmark featuring native plants and animals. I worked on it until my last day in Colorado and they were made after I left.

Pastries Paintings

This is a fun end of year project I used to ease back into personal practice. I had wanted to explore food illustration and practice more watercolour for a long time, so I started painting these delicacies from my local pastry shop.

My Greatest Takeaway from 2025

Looking back at this incredible year, I am filled with gratitude and joy for all the opportunities I was offered, the adventure, all that I learned and experienced…

But what stands out above everything is all the incredible people I was able to meet this year. 2025 brought my online art pursuit into reality: it started in April with the first student organised NMA meet up in Paris, continued in May with Glenn’s workshop, in June with a visit from one of my NMA coaches, and took an entirely new dimension in July as I started my residency at New Masters Village.

It is a wonderful feeling to have met so many new friends, and end the year so full of love and memories. It has gone so fast, and as we are apart now, I am left with a strange mix of gratitude, joy, and longing. My thoughts are going to people I miss, but also how lucky I am to have friends to miss.

It has been an incredibly rich year for me, and I don’t quite know what words to end it on. Goodbye 2025, thank you for everything you brought. May it just be the beginning.

I wish you all a very happy new year 🥂

2025: A Year of Change Beyond Expectations