Painter and graphic designer Alice Koswara has lived in her Hayes Valley apartment for the past six or seven years, along with her husband, Eric, and their cat. The front room of the apartment doubles as an art studio, and is fully equipped with various studio basics—an iMac-laden desk, two chairs, a bookshelf, and neatly organized paint supplies.

Just down the street, half a block away, Koswara’s paintings are on display inside neighborhood cafe Momi Toby's. It’s the first time she’s showing any abstract work; for the past 2-3 years, her main focus has been painting delicate watercolor portraits of women, inspired by the Hollywood movies from the 1920s-60s that she and her mother would watch together when Koswara was growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia. 

"I paint women more often because I identify more with them, as a woman myself and as someone who grew up surrounded by many women,” she says.

Some of Koswara's work on the desk in her home studio. (Photo: Ellie McCutcheon)

Koswara has been living in San Francisco since 1996, a year after she moved to Fresno, California from Jakarta. She was 18 at the time and pursuing a degree at Academy of Art University, first as an advertising major, then as a graphic design major. Koswara was the third of her sisters to come to the U.S., and her initial plan was to return to Indonesia after college—her dad ran a printing company there, and her graphic design skills would have been useful to the business.

But when graduation rolled around in 2001, Koswara was offered a full-time job as a graphic designer in San Francisco, so she stayed in the city. These days, she's still a full-time graphic designer, and currently works at Turner Duckworth, a visual identity and packaging design agency. It’s only in the evenings and on weekends that her ladies and other paintings come to life.

Watercolor is a fairly new medium for Koswara. She and Eric (who she met on Myspace because they liked each other’s artwork) used to focus on acrylic paintings on wood.

“In a way, it was easier to paint acrylic,” Koswara says. “You could make a mistake and cover it up, or you could decide you’re tired of the old painting and paint over it entirely.”

Watercolor is speedier to work with, but it's more transparent than acrylic. Koswara says this makes it a little more difficult, because once you make a mark on paper with watercolor, there’s no going back. It’s more difficult to cover up mistakes.

Before turning to watercolor, Koswara painted acrylic on wood. These are some of her earlier paintings. (Photo: Alice Koswara)

Koswara started showing her work in galleries and cafes in 2010, after going to art shows with Eric, who was already involved with the local art scene. There, she met other artists and cafe or shop owners, one of whom invited her to display her work as part of a group show. One showing led to another, and she began to connect with other artists and venues. Eventually, she started showing her own work around the city as a stand-alone artist.

Things really took off when Eric suggested she start posting her work on Instagram. Koswara made an account and started posting her watercolor ladies almost every day, to incentivize herself to paint regularly. People started commenting to ask if they could buy her work. 

Photo: Alice Koswara

After receiving a bunch of requests, Koswara set up an Etsy shop with five small paintings. She says she was shocked when they sold out in about 10 minutes. So she put up some more, and they sold again.

But as it turns out, selling on Etsy is a lot of work. Between framing, packaging, writing thank-you notes, going to the post office, and so on, the act of creating ended up being only a small fraction of Koswara's work, requiring more time than she'd hoped in a side hobby she does mostly for herself. So, for the moment, she is not selling on Etsy. She does, however, sell prints and other goods emblazoned with her work through Society6, which handles the printing and shipping for her.

For now, Koswara is still posting to Instagram, where she currently has over 5,800 followers, and showing work in local spaces. She also takes commissions (for example, recreating a photograph of a loved one); if you're interested in commissioning a piece, you can contact her here.

For the next two to three months, you can see her work on display in two Hayes Valley cafes: Momi Toby's, where she's showing abstracts, and Cafe La Vie, which is featuring her watercolor ladies.