We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elisa Mack a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Elisa, appreciate you joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

When folks are interested in painting, often they will look to YouTube for guidance, or they will try out a paint by number kit. Often times, paint and sip style classes are hard to find and even harder to be expressive – most events give very little choice to diverge from the planned painting. There are sometimes community college courses available, but a classroom education setting can be very sterile and difficult to learn in for some people. This leaves even the most inclined and motivated painter discouraged, stifled, and feeling like they’re “not really an artist.”

What I offer through my business, Paint With Magenta, is hands-on learning, real painting techniques, and an enjoyable atmosphere for my clients. This encourages exploration, originality, and self-expression that doesn’t often happen in a school classroom or from YouTube guided painting. I believe that encouraging each student to make decesions based on what they like, helping them form a vision around what they want, and praising their exploration builds confidence and helps them to walk away feeling successful. This is my passion and what I believe makes my classes different – I try to tailor my teaching to each student’s needs – whether that is encouragement to keep going, observing and listening to what they want, or helpful suggestions or techniques. With more than 15 years of watercolor painting under my belt, I have the expertise and skill to direct novice painters in the right direction, help to “fix” when there’s a problem, and give students a confident nudge when they need it.

Watercolor in general is often written off, it’s a medium that is used in kindergarten classrooms. What I love to do is introduce people to the versitility of watercolor. Most paint n sip classes feature acrylic paintings on canvas. I like to offer a different option, and rather than canvas, paintings are done on high quality watercolor paper and placed in attractive mats for students to take home. In these ways, I do things differently than typical educators as well as other paint and sip style teachers. My hope is that people appreciate the different medium and approach, and benefit from it.

Elisa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember. I spent my childhood living outside city limits on several acres of land in Oregon. As I grew, so did my creativity and curiosity. I excelled at art projects in school, I began private watercolor painting lessons at 11, and experimented with different mediums. In high school I had a brilliant art teacher, Mrs. Heintzman, who took extra time to mentor and encourage me in my projects.

Under many mentors and alongside my sweet grandmother (who is also a professional watercolor artist and teacher), I learned how to predict the uncontrollable and beautiful aspects of watercolor; where to manipulate and where to allow the paint to do it’s own work. I started painting portraits of pets for my friends and family, and then began getting a lot of requests, so I started taking commissions in my hometown, just on a word-of-mouth basis. That evolved into quicker, more expressive Splash + Ink watercolor portraits, using bright colors and loose pen lines to capture an animal’s character and charm.

I believe that anyone with passion and drive can be an artist, regardless of background or education.

The idea behind Paint With Magenta was born through the pandemic – watching so many people pick up and teach themselves new creative hobbies to pass the time and keep their hands busy, during the most tumultuous time in generations. I found that so many people discovered amazing new things, but not without the struggle of teaching themselves, watching hours of YouTube, or realizing that they ordered the wrong supplies off of Amazon.

I looked back on previous years, and even previous eras of crafting together. People have gotten together for centuries for quilting bees, scrapbooking parties, creating together and learning from each other. I have my own personal experience of taking classes or even painting together with friends – the final product from creating together has the memories of togetherness woven into it’s very fibers.

I began to put together paint ‘n sip style classes with this sense of community in mind. I have partnered with dozens of locally owned wineries and businesses throughout the Willamette Valley to host Wine & Watercolor classes for the past several years. I believe that my expertise, combined with my love for connecting people with their creativity is the perfect atmosphere for painters to try something new and feel successful. I also offer kid’s classes and children’s watercolor workshops at libraries across Oregon. I love to see through the kids’ eyes and help direct them towards their creative expression. I hosted a total of 36 events in 2023, and I’m excited to do even more in 2024!

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I have painted for my entire adult life, as well as much of my childhood. In being a creative person, I have been asked countless times to paint things for people – mainly pets! I began taking commissions for Pet Portraits over 10 years ago on a word of mouth basis. This grew to a healthy little side hustle, with commissions coming in semi-regularly. I enjoyed the challenge of capturing people’s beloved pets and often times the grateful reactions made the whole thing worth it for me.

A few years ago, I painted a total of 27 pet portraits in a year’s time. This was a very prolific year for me, but I found that I was not enjoying the process. It felt like work. That was when I decided to take on other projects – I illustrated a children’s book and I started to plan and host Wine & Watercolor events. I still do the occasional photo-realistic pet portraits, but I was able to find a comfortable middle ground for pet portraits. At my vendor booths and live events, I will do on-the-spot pet portraits, with a simple splash of color for a background and an ink line drawing to capture the pet, all completed in under 20 minutes. I have had great success at markets and festivals with this type of pet portrait – it’s a unique and colorful rendition of the customers pet, and it is a fulfilling and challenging practice for me, with elements of fun!

In July of 2023, after hosting classes for over a year, I registered Paint With Magenta LLC, and officially launched my side-hustle into my full-time career. It is so gratifying to build something that means so much to me, and to be able to make my livlihood from my passion.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I have accumulated art supplies for a long time, with very little interest in downsixing my collection of brushes, paints, and other art supplies. That is where it began, and when I first decided to officially invest in materials needed for my Wine & Watercolor classes, it came from my income from pet portrait commissions. I purchased clip boards, as well as palettes, used watercolor paper I had on hand, and launched it from there. I have been able to keep costs relatively low by purchasing supplies in bulk from discount shops, or by keeping an eye out for good sales on brushes when replacements are needed. I factor the overhead cost into my ticket sales and have been able to continue. At this point in my business, I’m focused on maintaining my momentum and paying my bills. I haven’t hit it big, but I am determined to get there.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://paintwithmagenta.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/paintwithmagenta
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/paintwithmagenta
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_iTqi6RSXhC-OLq9fWlmqw
• Other: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/elisa-mack-51160956233 https://www.pinterest.com/paintwithmagenta/