Dunedin watercolor artist Essie Bergen was the fourth guest I ever recorded for Palm Harbor Local, back in 2021 in my broker’s office. This week she came back for round two. A lot has changed for both of us, and most of it comes down to one thing: showing up when you don’t feel ready.
She Still Isn’t Always Confident. She Paints Anyway.
On the intake form, Essie wrote that the biggest misconception about her work is that she’s always confident in it. On the mic, she corrected herself. She’s not. She still critiques her own pieces harder than anyone else would, and she doesn’t think that’s a bad thing.
Her view is that a little self-doubt keeps you humble and teachable. What matters is whether you keep working through it. In the first episode she talked about being scared to even try painting. Now her husband jokes that the hard part is holding her back.
That shift didn’t come from a mindset trick. It came from years of repetition.
The Hobby Lobby Turtle
Essie has had a piece licensed and sold in Hobby Lobby stores nationwide for several years. It’s a large canvas of a turtle wearing glasses, and the licensing was recently renewed.
She didn’t pitch it. They approached her looking for exactly that image, and she happened to have one. Her signature is visible on the canvas, so people from all over the country find her on Instagram after spotting it in a store. Some of them turn out to be old friends who didn’t realize it was hers until they got it home.
She calls it a quiet dream she’d only shared with her husband. Worth noting: it showed up after she’d already put in the work, not before.
A Studio Built to Be Experienced
Essie’s husband built a studio addition onto their home, and she runs it like a small boutique. It’s shoppable by appointment. Everything in it, she designs start to finish. She estimates about 98 percent of the process is hers, from painting the original to digitizing it, to printing cards at the studio, to designing the packaging for her wire-wrapped bracelets and laminated Gulf Coast seashell guides.
The seashell guide started as a way to teach her kids to identify shells at the beach. Her kids have found nearly every shell on it except the Junonia. Now it’s a product that clips to a shell bag and goes with families to the water.
Her take on why the packaging matters: it builds trust. People want to feel seen and cared for, and a gift where every element was made by one person’s hands does that in a way a mass-produced item can’t.
Honeymoon Island, Wholesale, and Why She Won’t Consign
For about a year now, Essie has had a permanent display at the Honeymoon Island State Park nature center, alongside her greeting cards. Thirty percent of every sale goes to the Friends of the Island Foundation. She says the cards fly off the shelves, and the challenge has never been whether they sell. It’s getting eyes on them.
She’ll work with other local shops, but only on a wholesale basis. Her reasoning is practical. Consignment leaves the promotion on the artist and often means three items lost on a shelf. Wholesale means the shop bought in, got paid up front, and has a reason to move the product. If you own a storefront and want to support local artists, she’d tell you wholesale is the better way to do it.
Oranges, Shadows, and a Very Large Wall
Essie has been painting Florida oranges since she moved to the Dunedin and Palm Harbor area. Her goal is to make them feel local, not touristy. Something people who actually live here would want on their wall.
Right now she’s working through a whole series of orange studies in both watercolor and acrylic, pushing herself on backgrounds and shadow depth. All of it is prep for a mural of oranges on the outside wall of her studio, which she hopes to finish before her Studio Waltz event in November.
Her other favorite piece is Gelato, a creamsicle-colored Highland cow with turquoise glasses and sassy bangs. He’s on her business card.
Investing in the Next Generation
The moment Essie said her work started to feel like it truly mattered was when she began pouring into younger kids. On October 17 she’s hosting a youth market in the Dunedin area. Around 14 families are signed up so far. One kid is making fresh pancakes after practicing all summer on an RV trip. Essie’s daughter is bringing flowers from their front yard.
She’s not taking anything from it financially. She’s also hosting a required session for the families beforehand to encourage them to invest in their kids’ gifts. Her words: we get one chance with our kids.
What Palm Harbor Gets Out of This
Essie’s answer to how her work makes this area better was simple. It brings joy and beauty to our homes and community. After this conversation, I’d add one more thing. It’s proof that you can start scared and end up with a mural.
Find Essie’s work at EssieBergenArtwork.com and follow her on Instagram at @essiebergenartwork. Her paint classes, Studio Waltz, and youth market details are on both.
Want more conversations like this? Listen to Essie’s first episode [internal link: palmharborlocal.com/episode-4] and join the Palm Harbor Local newsletter for one local insight every week. You can also follow along on Instagram at @palmharborlocal.
