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

Grace, appreciate you joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I thought this was a particularly interesting question because it’s one that I’ve asked myself so many times over the course of my artistic journey. As is the case with many creatives, I was working a corporate job when I started painting on the side. I never intended for this to become a career path, and I was actually pursuing a master’s degree in counseling when I decided to take the leap into art full-time.

So, though my time in the corporate world was short, I can say I have had experience having a few “regular jobs.” And though that life is the right choice for so many people, I personally found it to always be lacking in some respects – whether that be a sense of fulfillment, challenge, creativity, autonomy, etc.
This is not to say that in becoming an artist I’ve found the most perfect job where I have found total life satisfaction.
It is extremely challenging and I have often quoted the meme of, “I quit my 9 to 5 to work 24/7.” I certainly work harder now than I ever did at a “regular” job, but that’s because I care so much more about this work. And though it does take more energy, I love it and the sense of satisfaction I get when I complete a painting or a client project. And that satisfaction gives me the drive to keep putting in the extra work.

Still, I mainly work alone in a studio in our home. So I don’t have the social component that is naturally built into so many jobs with my schedule and it’s something I’ve had to intentionally work to cultivate by creating community with other small business owners and creatives near me. But, that’s also the really great thing about working as a creative, the ability to “create” and shape your job into whatever you want / need it to be.

Over the last 3 years of being full time in this work, I have gone through so many ups and downs of being so satisfied and so frustrated with being a full-time creative. But I’ve also never wanted to go back to a “regular” job.
So yes, I do sometimes wonder if I’d be happier having all the benefits of a normal job – coworkers, set hours, the ability to leave work at work, paid leave, insurance, etc. But then I go up to my studio and sit down to paint and I know this is where I love to be. Though there are challenges, I am so grateful for this work and for the ability to be trusted to paint so many special moments for my clients. There’s no feeling quite like that, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Grace Manning and I am a watercolor portraiture artist (though I also dabble in oil portraits from time to time).

I create custom portraits – both human and animal – for my clients and get to bring life back to old memories in new and beautiful ways. My business tagline is, “Timeless. Detailed. Personal.” as those are all things I hope to bring to each painting I create.

I didn’t intentionally set out to be a full time creative. In fact, I had no idea that art was in my future at all.
had a corporate job and was going to grad school to become a therapist when I started painting on the side and selling my work to friends and family. Word got around that I was creating these one of a kind pieces, and I started to build a waitlist. Fortunately, over three years later, I can say I have never been without a waitlist and I’m more in love with creating custom pieces for my clients than ever before.

As you may have figured from my statement that I didn’t know art would be a part of my future, I didn’t have much formal training in art. But, I did add a studio art minor to my studies in college, as a fun break from my other studies. Little did I know that some of my classes there would change my life and career trajectory permanently.
I actually took a watercolor course my first year of college and HATED it. Looking back, I think it was the way that particular instructor taught the course and was trying to teach me to paint that I never “clicked” with. Either way, by the end of that course, I swore I would never touch them again. But my senior year of college I was signed up for “Oils 2” with a professor that ended up not being able to teach the class, so I was re-assigned at the last minute to “Watercolors 2.” To say I was less than thrilled was an understatement. But to my surprise, one of my favorite professors ended up teaching the course and she tailored it to the interests of the class – which for us was portraiture. The way she taught that class changed everything for me, and from the first time I watched her paint a face, I was hooked.

Mind you, I was hooked but not good, ha. I look back at those paintings and cringe. But I loved the process and I started painting portraits very casually on the side in 2017. (Casually, as in maybe 2 a year). And as mentioned, it wasn’t until I was in grad school in 2020 when Covid hit and put everything online that I was stuck at home, watching lectures, and started to paint again. It was in that time that I decided to post about my work for the first time and people had interest and started to inquire about getting one for themselves. From there, my husband encouraged me to take the summer semester off to “see where this art thing could go” and I’ve been booked ever since.

What I think separates my work from other creatives in my field is my unique process of layering colors to create realistic skin tones (much of which I credit to that wonderful professor I had my senior year of college) and the amount of detail work I put into each piece. I’ve come to be known in my field for both my skin tones and the complicated textile patters I tend to take on (and love ha).

The main thing I would want potential clients and followers to know about me and my work is that each piece is as special to me as the first one I ever painted. Each piece is a challenge, and adventure and my happy place all at once. I truly consider it an honor that people would trust me with their memories and I don’t take it lightly that I get to do this for a living.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think this question ties together a few of the questions on the list including: lessons I had to unlearn and the goal / mission now driving my business.

In short, when I first started my business, as I explained earlier, I was totally new to the creative field.
So naturally, I started listening to small business and creative entrepreneur podcasts and influencers – and let me tell you, as if you don’t already know, that field is over saturated with people who want to tell you how to make it big in the first six months of your business. They have secret strategies to help you get there that involve some way of “outsmarting” the algorithm or learning to market yourself the right way. And I do believe there is some strategy to be learned.
But I don’t believe in hitting big numbers so quickly in business, and the main reason is I’ve come to learn that I’m growing alongside my business.

I wouldn’t have been able to handle thousands of followers at the beginning of my creative journey. I had no idea what my style was or what kind of art I really wanted to put into the world. And honestly, I was really moldable to whatever was popular and selling. And I don’t knock that. I believe it’s part of the process to mimick things and to try your hand at several different styles of art until you find what clicks for you. But I strongly believe that’s a lot harder to do with a large audience watching you. Or even while trying to maintain large numbers of revenue in your business.

So long story short, I ended up chasing all those things my first year in business.
I don’t regret it. I think it’s part of the process, but I am so thankful for the turn that burnout forced me to take.
I hit the “big numbers,” but at the same time I hit rock bottom in my personal life. I was killing myself to make my business successful, and though I was creating a lot of pieces. I didn’t feel proud of them and I no longer had much of a personal life because all of my time was being spent alone in my studio.

So around year two, I made a big shift and slowed my pace, raised my prices, started saying yes to the pieces I really wanted to take on and no to the pieces that didn’t fit my style. I allowed myself to try new things and to be bad at them as well. I didn’t earn as much for a while. But I also found new ways to serve my clients that excited me and served them well.

Going into my third year of business, I started to pivot even more as my audience started to be made up of other artists wanting to know more about my process. So now I am starting to create educational materials, and that’s totally new, but I love it as well!

So while it is largely important to listen to what your audience is asking for, it’s equally if not more important to make sure that the work you’re doing in response is life-giving to you as well. If not, I’m afraid to say that burnout and the lack of a desire to keep creating may likely be around the corner.

So don’t be afraid to pivot. You may lose some followers or even some revenue for a time, but those numbers are so fluid. Don’t chase them, chase authenticity and life. Your art doesn’t have your bank account or follower number next to it. It has your name. And that’s something you want to be proud to have beside your work. So don’t be afraid to pivot.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

This is a bit more practical – but I think there are some other nerdy creatives out there, like myself, so hopefully someone finds this helpful.

But I wish I would have incorporated a client management system into my creative journey a bit earlier.
I currently use Dubsado, but there are several different CRMs out there, including Honeybook and others.

I can’t overstate the importance of creating a customized and professional experience for your clients, and that’s where a client managment system comes in. It helps me organize things on the backend to serve my clients well and make sure that no one falls through the cracks and each one has a customized and engaging experience with me.

I think most creatives feel drained by spending a long time on the computer, answering emails, creating proposals or invoices – so something like this can really help cut down on the time you would otherwise spend doing those tasks. And also, so many of us are one man or one woman shows, so we do it all. And getting a system like this can help give you more time to get back to what you do best – your craft.

I could go into all the details of Dubsado, but I think that may not be the point of this question.
So if you want to know more, or if you want a discount, let me know and I’d happily give you my code or answer whatever questions I can.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gracemanningart.com
• Instagram: @gracemanningart
• Facebook: @gracemanningart
• Other: I also have a podcast with another creative where we talk about our faith journey in relation to our careers in art. It’s called The Faith and Art Podcast, and it’s on Spotify, Apple Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Image Credits
Headshots: @courtniewelchphoto