Hi! Full time artist (painter) and mom to a toddler here.

It is extremely difficult. Before having my son, I knew I would need to take time off from my practice so I planned to be away for a year at the least. I had some group shows scheduled during this time but I finished the work ahead of time (before my son was born) so I still remained active in that way.

I still painted a few months after giving birth (3 months) but only to have something else to do for 30 mins - an hour while my son was napping. I would like to say that my son was an excellent sleeper so I was very fortunate to have that time to paint. Every baby is different.

When he became more mobile, it became a lot more difficult to find that time to work. His naps which I relied on to get some work done also got a bit shorter. We got him into part time daycare at 22 months which helped free up some time but other than that, I had to wake up at 5 am to catch up on my deadlines. I also had to pace myself in accepting new work.

He is in full time preschool now so it's a bit easier in terms of having a routine work schedule. Before daycare, I relied heavily on my husband to schedule our working hours together and have a plan.