We were lucky to catch up with Lynn D. Pratt recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lynn D., thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

When I first started painting with watercolor, I started it as just a hobby. I was a full-time architect running my own practice with two young children. Watercolor painting was just supposed to be something to fill my downtime to relax. I picked up a brush and watercolor paint and was completely hooked. I started painting in all of my spare time and doing some small featured artist shows and local art shows. After a year of painting, I knew I could not sustain two careers at the same time so I started taking less architectural clients and painting more. Over the next year I ended up closing my architecture practice completely and painting full-time. This was never the plan from the beginning, but a gradual progression over time and turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made!
I started out by doing every art show and event within driving distance from my house. Setting up the tent, hanging the art and being there most weekends. I painted more commissioned pet portraits than I could ever count, started teaching many kids and beginner adult classes, and just progressed from there. Now I enter, judge and run international competitions and travel all over the country to teach as well as having my own online school. It could not have possibly turned out better! If you are looking to make art your fulltime career, my advice is to hang in there, it’s not always easy in the beginning, but it’s totally worth all the hard work!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I live in small-town Vermont with my amazing husband Brad; in a house I designed and we built ourselves. My (young) adult children live close by which is wonderful. I paint in a very photorealistic style which I adopted from my background in architecture and my love for detail. In college, I studied architecture at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts graduating cum laude, third in my class.

I am an international award-winning artist, demonstrator, juror and watercolor instructor and showcase my work in solo shows and international exhibitions. I am a signature member in the American Watercolor Society, Women in Watercolor, Vermont Watercolor Society and North East Watercolor Society. I have been featured on television and in many magazines and books including Splash, Watercolor Artist, Artscope and The Artists Magazine.

With a deep passion for teaching watercolor, I find inspiration from sharing my love of the medium with others. I travel all over the country to teach in-person classes, give demonstrations and judge watercolor competitions. I hold classes for every age and ability in-person and online and love to take on a limited number of one-on-one mentor students each year as well. Because of my absolute love for teaching, I started my Let’s Paint Patreon Online School in 2019. It currently has over 150 full length video tutorial classes available, as well as dozens more about materials and techniques. My online school is so important to me and I love connecting with all of my amazing students from all over the world.
In 2020 I started Women in Watercolor and run it as the President of the International Women’s Organization. WIW started with the Annual International Juried Competition, which was a huge success and the organization has grown significantly since then. Now WIW has a membership option and a Members Only Exhibition in addition to the Juried Competition each year. I love working with and promoting these talented women from all over the world and am excited to continue to grow WIW.
You can see more of my work, details about my online school and information on Women in Watercolor on my website at www.LynnDPratt.com.

While, I absolutely love painting, teaching Watercolor has become my true passion. I absolutely love connecting with students and seeing other people get as excited about this medium as I am. After starting my online school, I found that was a great way to connect with students from all over the world very easily and reach so many different kinds of people, that I wouldn’t normally be able to do in person. However, my favorite way to teach is still in-person classes. I love to teach 3 to 5 day long classes. Getting to connect with students one-on-one and in a group setting, there’s nothing that can beat it. Having students not just for a single class setting but over multiple days lets you get to know them as a person and artist. You can then really understand what they want to learn and help them along in their own personal journey.

My other favorite part of being a full-time artist is starting the Women in Watercolor organization. After having so many female artists in my classes over the years from all over the world, it seems like this was something that was missing and needed. I absolutely love showcasing all of these amazing women‘s artwork from beginner all the way through the absolute top in the industry. Giving them a platform to show and share their work and meet other artists has been one of the most rewarding things I have done.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

When I first started painting, I absolutely fell in love with it. When I realized I needed more income in order to be able to paint full-time, I decided to start teaching as well. I had no idea that I would end up falling in love with teaching even more than I do painting! I absolutely love working with students and it inspires my own personal creativity even more. Teaching someone else to love this medium as much as I do gives me a newfound love for it every single time. Introducing watercolor to a beginner student for the first time, teaching an intermediate artist new skills or working as a mentor for an experienced artist; it doesn’t matter, I absolutely love them all. I feel like the love of art and creating it is contagious and I just love watching it spread to others!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

In my personal life, I don’t have that much to do with social media, however, professionally as an artist, I could not run my business without it. I found out quickly that I absolutely love sharing my art journey! My suggestion for anyone starting out or trying to build their social media or online community, is to be yourself. Don’t post fake things that you think people want to see. Post your process. Post your feelings about art. Make it all about You and Your art. I found that sharing my in-progress work attracted followers that really wanted to follow along with me to see what the end result was. I wasn’t focused on getting as many followers as possible, I was adding engaged followers who are actually interested in what I was doing. It also helped students and anyone who wanted to learn about watercolor get interested and possibly start creating themselves. If someone leaves a comment, I try to always take time to reply. If you want engaged followers, you have to put in the time to connect with them too.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://lynndpratt.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lynndprattpaint/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lynndprattpaint/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynn-d-pratt
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/lynndpratt
• Other: Patreon Online School:
  https://www.patreon.com/lynndpratt