We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tim Smith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tim below.

Alright, Tim thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you 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?

I have been lucky enough to just recently take the leap in to my full time artist career. It did not come easy or quickly by any means and it has only been a little over a year. I have learned a lot about myself, the art business, what my time is really worth, and how to have a healthy work life balance. However, it is always evolving. My journey began 8 years ago when I picked up a pencil for the first time since high school. I was 28 years old at the time. I started drawing and I realized, that the creative side of myself had been missing from my life since I was 18. Over the next year I became obsessed with drawing. I then ventured into painting where I was able to add vibrant colors. Instantly I was hooked. Since then I have been lucky enough to gain some momentum and followers on instagram. I have had some amazing opportunities to do some work for big names (Garyvee and Dave Portnoy), and I have been lucky enough to be commissioned by a couple casinos to do some big work for them. So After 7 years, I left the classroom and took the leap of faith and decided to see if I could live me dream as a full time artist.

Tim, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a self taught contemporary artist, specializing in the style of “Spontaneous Realism”. I enjoy painting large scale paintings with a lot of vibrant colors and fast pace motions. My goal as an artist is to make something that is captivating and a center piece for a household or room. I want guest to walk in a room and automatically say “wow” when they see my work. For clients to have my pieces in their homes is an honor for me. Definitely a conversation starter for everyone that see them.

I am most proud of the fact that I put myself out there. In the beginning of my art career I struggled with calling myself an artist because I never went to art school. I really didn’t know what I was doing but I think that helped me in a way. I wasn’t constricted to the “rules of art” that you might learn in an art school. But I quickly learned that I was an artist. People were buying my work and commissioning me to do custom works for them. I had unbelievable opportunities that I never would of got if I wasn’t a “real artist”. I got to go to New York and sit down with Gary Vaynerchuk, a true entrepreneur and marketing genius (@garyvee) after doing a piece for him. I have done work for local celebrities, casinos, restaurants, had my own solo shows, etc… its been a great journey so far and I am still so excited everyday to grow my business and brand. Life’s is an amazing thing when you get to design it.

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

Art is always evolving and there have been times when I had to pivot. However, a pivot does not mean you change yourself. I was able to pivot and still stay true to me. Here is what I mean by that. In the beginning of my career, I started doing a lot of portraits. Although I think large scale portraits are amazing and captivating, from a business standpoint they are very difficult to sell. To have a 4 foot by 5 ft piece of a large face in your living room is a hard sell. So I pivoted. I added city scapes and beach scapes to my repertoire because they seem to be more of what people want to put in their living rooms. However, this was not a big change for me in the fact that I had been drawling surfers and beaches and waves, since I was a child. So although it was a pivot going from a Portrait artist to landscapes and cityscapes it was one that I was still comfortable with because I felt like I was still being authentic.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Since the beginning of my career, I was given great advice to just get my work out there. In the beginning, I gave some work away for free in hopes that people would share it on their social media, and tag me. As I gained some traction in Followers, the scale got larger. I learned how to collaborate with other people on Instagram and Facebook. I learned to give pieces to high net worth individuals with big followings in order to grow my business. This was key, and absolutely huge if I was to give advice to someone starting out, I would say to do the same thing. Keep making work every day, get better at your craft, give some work to people who get the attention, and can help you grow your business by sharing it on their social media.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.theartworkoftimsmith.com
• Instagram: @TimSmithArt
• Facebook: The Artwork of Tim Smith
• Youtube: @TimSmithArt

Image Credits
Photo Credit to @ Ben Hale for the first image of Tim Smith next to NYC painting.