Klinta Lapsa Paints Abstracts in Latvia. One Buyer Waited Almost a Year to Take Hers Home

Klinta Lapsa is an abstract painter based in Latvia. She describes her work as abstract paintings with soul – art for people whose minds rarely stop, that gives a space room to breathe, feel and simply be. She has been painting since 2018 and sells her work in Latvian and English through her website, klintaart.com.

Klinta Lapsa works with oil paints on canvas, mostly large-scale abstracts. Her process is intuitive, guided by emotions, colors and textures: she sits in front of a blank canvas and allows whatever comes to come. Each painting takes several weeks, depending on its complexity and drying time. Every painting carries something from the experience that changed her life.

Klinta Lapsa accepts commissions, ships internationally and collaborates with interior designers. A commissioned painting takes up to 3 months: quality is her priority, and oil paints need time to dry properly. Her available paintings are shown on her website, and a buyer can reserve one – one client waited almost a year before taking hers home.

Klinta Lapsa finds customers mainly through Instagram, which brings about 80% of her audience and customers; she has around 2,200 followers. People discover her paintings, the process and finished works there, and her own website is where that connection most often turns into a purchase. She spends nothing on paid promotion.

Klinta tells it in her own words:

“Eight years ago, I died. Literally.

That experience turned my life upside down. And when I came back, everything had changed.

I started painting. Not because I had planned to become an artist, but because I felt I had to.”

“Every day, I sit in front of a blank canvas and allow whatever comes to come. Colors, forms, images – they seem to appear on their own. Sometimes it feels as though something is speaking through me. I can’t really explain it, and I no longer try to.
Every painting carries something from that experience – the weight of where I came back from, and the lightness I discovered on the other side.

I create for people whose minds rarely stop. People who carry a lot, and who want to come home to a space where, even for a moment, they can breathe.”

Klinta works with oil paints on canvas, primarily creating large-scale abstract artworks. Each painting takes several weeks to complete, depending on its complexity and drying time. “I believe every artwork needs its own time to come to life.”

Klinta’s buyers are people who feel deeply, think a lot, and want their home to be more than just a beautiful space. Often their minds rarely stop: they carry a lot in their everyday lives and want to come home to something that gives them a sense of calm, depth and space to breathe. They appreciate design and quality, but ultimately they choose a painting because of how it makes them feel.

Buying art, she has learned, can be a very personal and slow decision. One woman chose and reserved a painting, but different things kept happening in her life that prevented her from coming to collect it. This went on for almost a year. Klinta never considered selling it to someone else. “I had a very strong feeling that it was her painting. Somehow, it already belonged to her, so I was happy to let it wait for her.” Eventually, the woman took it home. Now she tells Klinta that the painting feels healing to her – like a place of peace, something almost magical, and something that feels completely hers.

Klinta also has collectors who have returned again and again to buy another piece. “The connection matters more than urgency. My work doesn’t need to reach everyone or create an immediate sale – it needs to reach the right person. And when that connection is there, it can last for years.”

Klinta’s earliest buyers were people she knew. She started sharing on her personal Instagram stories that she was painting, without really thinking of it as a business at that point. People who knew her noticed the work and started asking whether the paintings were for sale – and that’s how her earliest sales happened.

Her earliest followers grew quite naturally through Instagram as she began sharing more of her work. Her earliest online purchases came directly through her website, organically, without paid advertising.

Instagram has been Klinta’s main channel for building an audience and sharing her work: about 80% of her audience and customers come from there, and she has around 2,200 followers. She has grown it organically by consistently sharing her paintings, the process behind them, and finished works. It’s still the place where most people discover her and connect with her work.

Her website has been much more important for actual sales. It has become the place where people can see the available collection and take the next step from discovering her work to actually owning a piece.

“So far, the clearest pattern has been that social media creates the initial connection, while my own website is where that connection is most likely to turn into a purchase.”

All of it has come without paid promotion – her monthly budget for it is $0.

There have been plenty of moments when Klinta questioned whether this could really become something sustainable. “One of the hardest parts has been learning that creating the work and finding the right people for it are two completely different things.”

She spent time and money trying different ways to get her art seen, and not all of them led anywhere. Some brought attention but no sales; others simply felt like putting energy into the wrong places. She tried art platforms such as Saatchi Art and Artfinder, but didn’t make any sales through them. The commission fees were very high, “while at the same time you are one artist among millions. Simply being listed there doesn’t necessarily make you visible.”

Eventually she reached a point where she felt like she was creating into a void. She couldn’t see any real progress and started believing that maybe there simply wasn’t a place for her work. She stopped painting and stepped away for almost two years. “It was difficult to keep creating when I couldn’t see where any of it was going, and for a while, stopping felt easier than continuing.”

Coming back was the real turning point. Klinta returned with a different mindset, and realized how important it is to find the right mentor – “someone who can see what you can’t see yourself, challenge you, and help you find direction when you feel stuck. Sometimes you don’t need more motivation. You need the right person to help you see the next step.”

Coming back also changed the way she thinks about visibility. She used to think the artwork itself should be enough. Now she sees that she needs to become more visible herself – to talk about who she is, show the paintings, share the process, and let people see what is behind the finished work. “People don’t necessarily buy a piece of art only because of the artwork itself – they also connect with the person and the story behind it. I’ve realized that the story starts with me, and then comes the art.”

“It wasn’t one big breakthrough. It was the decision to come back, find the right guidance, and keep going.” Even when she doubted whether she could build a business around her art, she never lost the need to create. “I can doubt the business, the strategy, or whether I’m doing things the right way – but I don’t doubt painting itself. Painting is the part I keep coming back to.”

Klinta has only recently returned to painting, and she’s planning to focus on Instagram again. She thinks the next stage of growth will be less about chasing bigger numbers and more about reaching the right people. Instagram will still matter for discovery, but she sees her own website becoming more important as the place where connection turns into a sale. She also sees a lot of potential in building relationships with interior designers, architects and other people who are already creating spaces where original art belongs.

She wants to focus on long-term relationships rather than one-time transactions. What she doesn’t think will work for her is constantly chasing algorithms, trends or trying to reach everyone. “My work is too personal for that.”

For her, growth over the next year means becoming more visible to the right people, building trust, and creating more opportunities for her paintings to find the homes they belong in. “Sometimes a painting seems to find its person, and once that connection happens, it somehow belongs to them even before it reaches their home.”

Klinta Lapsa

I create abstract paintings with soul for people whose minds rarely stop – art that gives a space room to breathe, feel and simply be.

Who: Klinta Lapsa
What: Abstract oil paintings on canvas
Where: Latvia
Started: 2018
Audience: ~2,200 Instagram followers
Customers: ~200 buyers
Custom orders: Yes
Ships: Worldwide
Works with designers: Yes
Promotion budget: $0
Income: main
Status: active and growing
Channels: Social media, Marketplaces