How many identities do you have?
I definitely wear multiple hats, ever since I was a little kid. I couldn’t express myself through one thing only, it felt limiting. Through my childhood I was a basketball player/school geek/dancer. In my adolescent years I was a law student/ professional photo model.

As for my current roles:

- Mother and Wife.

Mother to a beautiful little boy who reminds me daily of a true and pure happiness. Wife to the love of my life!

- Business owner.

I have this newfound love for entrepreneurship, and creating something amazing from the ground up. I have a Fine Art Portrait studio where I create timeless fine art portraits of women and their families for them to enjoy in a form of wall art and handmade albums.

- Artist.

I don’t call myself a photographer, but rather an artist, as I do so much more than just clicking the shutter on my camera. The experience that I created for my clients, involves designing, styling and creating fine art portrait pieces that decorate a home with love.

- Lawyer.

The burning passion is still there, but I decided to tame it for this next segment of my life and later revive it in a form of pro bono work for the causes I believe in.

- Book lover.

As Socrates supposedly said, “The only thing I know is that I know nothing”. I believe that you ought to learn as long as you live. Personal development has an enormous importance in my life. And non-fiction books are definitely one of my ways to keep climbing the ladder of knowledge and wisdom.

Tell us a bit about your story and how you’ve got to where you are now professionally?

I always believed I would be a successful lawyer who satisfies her artistic side in a form of a side hobby. But it turns it might be the other way around. I have worked short but very valuable time in legal field. I worked in family law matters as well as domestic violence. This experience brought so much for me. But once I moved to Australia, from my home country Serbia, and had my child, I realised my preferences changed. I wanted more freedom, more time for my family, and I needed to put in action all this creative energy I felt I have.

So, I decided to start a different journey and press a pause on my law career.

Photography, as well as painting were artistic directions I was very interested in. I also have a passion for interior design, and beauty of any kind in general. All this inspired me to create a unique experience and product that is not very common for the Perth market.

I opened a Portrait Studio where I create custom artistic portraits of women and their families. This style of photography is called fine art and includes a special editing process, as well as styling and posing, to achieve this specific look.

I went a step further and created a pampering experience around it, professional makeup and hair, styling and a design appointment that helps me create finished wall art and album pieces that perfectly fit my client’s home.

Besides my aim to create breathtaking portrait pieces that will decorate any home with love, I also have a mission of showing every single person in front of my camera, and especially women, their beauty. The beauty they are quite often not aware of.

I want to help every woman that sits in front of my camera to celebrate herself, every perfect and imperfect piece of her. Time flies, and I know she will want to remember who she once was, and there is no better way of capturing this than in beautiful, timeless portraits. I want to tell her story through portraits.

As a female, what has been your greatest challenge in your career/business?

Self-doubt and rejection. You get out of this corporate world that keeps you warm and safe from any form of rejection and step straight into the business world and artist journey that is filled with exactly that – rejection at every step. This quite often can cause self-doubt, but if you keep going you learn that rejection is just an integral part of success in business.

You learn to focus on the right people and emotionally detach yourself as much as you can from a YES or NO. At the end of the day it’s all about the perspectives.

How have you grown as a person, mentally, emotionally and spiritually since that challenge?

Becoming a mother and starting my business journey at the same time has made me grow immensely. It truly pushed me to strive to be the best that I can, but to also keep the balance between my two worlds, family and business. This particular challenge has made me a stronger person on every level.

How do you plan to leave your mark in the world?

When I was a child, I dreamed that I would open a dog shelter. When I was a teenager, I dreamed I will write books that will leave a big mark in my readers life’s. When I was at uni, I dreamed I will try myself in politics and truly make a world a better place. I also dreamed I would start a foundation. Now I am dreaming about adopting a child and changing at least one life.

You can say I am a big dreamer… but I am also a big doer who has not forgotten about her past dreams

Milica Pudney

Mother | Wife | Business Owner, 'Arabella Blue Portraits' | Artist | Lawyer | Book Lover