13 Painter Success Stories [2024]
Becoming a painter is more than earning a living; it's about creating your own art and enjoying the freedom of working for yourself.
Paintings are not just pieces of art that decorate the walls of homes, malls, or offices; they constitute a significant component of every economy.
Painting is an art form that has been practiced for centuries, but not everyone is familiar with it. In modern times, the craft of painting doesn't get the same attention as other art but still offers substantial contributions to our lives in both practical and artistic senses.
Here are some real-life success stories of starting career as a painter:
1. Innerglow Art ($51.6K/year)
Painting had helped Sarah channel her emotions of getting rejected from grad schools in a positive way, as she had been the "artsy" girl in college as well. It started as a hobby but within a few months, her friends and family encouraged her to sell her art. Seeing the demand on her store, she started Innerglow Art.
How much they make: $51.6K/year
Current team size: 0
Innerglow Art is a successful custom abstract painting business that incorporates scripture and personable connection with buyers to produce beautiful and unique artwork.
2. Sarah Paints Pets ($42K/year)
Sarah Miller, the founder of sarahpaintspets, came up with the idea for her business in college when she painted her boyfriend's cat as a gift. After receiving positive feedback and selling over 100 paintings for Christmas presents, she realized there was a demand for her custom watercolor pet portraits. Since then, she has been able to increase her prices and attract customers through her personalized approach and social media presence.
How much they make: $42K/year
Current team size: 1
Sarah Miller started a small business, sarahpaintspets, where she creates custom watercolor pet portraits for animal lovers across the US and Canada, which has lead to an average income per painting of $150 and receives word-of-mouth referrals as the biggest source of income.
Learn more about starting a painter:
Where to start?
-> How much does it cost to start a painter?
-> Pros and cons of a painter
Need inspiration?
-> Examples of established painter
-> Marketing ideas for a painter
Other resources
3. Brush Tokes ($30K/year)
After realizing she needed a real hobby, Kelly rediscovered her love for art and decided to sell her creations. Partnering with Natasha, they came up with the idea for Brush Tokes, a 420-friendly art class that combines their shared interests in art and cannabis. Since launching in January 2018, they have sold out classes and experienced steady growth, with monthly income reaching up to $2,500.
How much they make: $30K/year
Current team size: 1
Brush Tokes is a 420-friendly art business that combines the enjoyment of cannabis with artistic expression, offering various services including painting, plant, and art classes, and generates up to $2,500 per month through its word-of-mouth business.
4. Twisted Boards ($12K/year)
Connecticut police officer Dave Cruickshank came up with the idea for his business, Twisted Boards, when he was relaxing with his ex-girlfriend and they molded their faces out of plaster for an art project. Holding the face mold against his dry erase board, Cruickshank had the idea to create a three-dimensional dry erase board. After building a thermo-molding machine in his basement and creating a prototype, Cruickshank realized the potential of his product when a friend's wife, who was a teacher, requested boards for her classroom. Thus, Twisted Boards was born.
How much they make: $12K/year
Current team size: 1
Twisted Boards is a company manufacturing three dimensional dry erase boards with an impressive broad customer base, growing from a basement to a manufacturing plant and fulfillment center in Michigan, with start-up costs of approximately $100k, and developing an intellectual portfolio that will help the business grow.
6. Lena Danya Store ($0/year)
- I am a painting artist residing in sunny, warm [humid] Florida! My paintings are heavily inspired by nature and its beauty. I work primarily in oil paint, and sometimes watercolor. I prefer to work in a mostly realistic style and occasionally experiment outside of that.
- I talk about the various income sources that allow me to survive full time as a self-employed artist while painting a gouache study of realistic water.
Lena Danya is a realist painter who produces stunning figurative works, many of which prominently feature water in its many forms.
She uses a realistic style, seamless blending, and great attention to detail when painting. She focuses on nature when painting landscapes and waterscapes in particular.
Over the years, Lena has built a large online fan base of hundreds of thousands of people by utilizing a variety of interactive and connecting social media technologies.
On April 11, 2010, Lena launched her YouTube channel to share her artistic expression further. She initially began by publishing vlogs of herself dancing or drawing.
Lena has a solid social media presence, with around 293K followers on Facebook, 844K+ YouTube subscribers, and 123K followers on Instagram.
Watch the full video on youtube.com ➜
7. Kirsty Partridge Art ($36.7K/year)
- Kirsty Partridge is one of the leading art educators on YouTube, with over 76 million views and 1.2 million subscribers on her channel.
- Since releasing her first video in 2015, the self-evident passion and talent she has for her art, plus an enthusiastic, easy to follow teaching style has led to the exponential growth of her audience and enrollment in her online art classes.
On Jan 9, 2015, Kirsty Partridge started an art youtube channel. Since then, she's gained over 1.3M subscribers and 81,296,486 views so far.
After she realized the growth potential of her Youtube channel, she launched her website, Kirsty Partridge Art, where she provides art tutorials, drawing guides, online art courses, and more.
Kirtsy also offers a personalized art course through her course Coloured Pencil Academy and to date, she has taught more than 21K+ students who have a deep love for art & drawing.
Read the full article on artismycareer.com ➜
7. Art Lovers Australia ($1.92M/year)
Nancy and Jarrod, both with backgrounds in the arts industry, recognized the obstacles that artists faced in gaining visibility. They decided to start Art Lovers Australia, an online gallery, to showcase the talent of Australian artists and make buying art easy for art enthusiasts. Through collaborations with designers and TV shows, their audience has grown, and they now have almost 1000 artists on their platform, with monthly sales averaging $160K.
How much they make: $1.92M/year
How much did it cost to start: $100K
Current team size: 4
Art Lovers Australia grew from 50 to almost 1000 artists and increased their monthly sales to an average of $160K by collaborating with designers and TV shows, building an audience on social media before launching, prioritizing advertising and marketing, and creating partnerships.
8. Bayard Art Consulting ($7.2K/year)
Steve Bayard came up with the idea for Bayard Art Consulting after experiencing multiple entrepreneurial ventures and realizing the need for artists to have a platform to showcase and sell their work. Through his background in design and website creation, he developed an online art gallery and magazine to support artists during the pandemic. With a significant increase in value and new applicants, Bayard Art Consulting has grown to become a thriving business.
How much they make: $7.2K/year
How much did it cost to start: $100
Current team size: 1
Bayard Art Consulting, founded by Steve Bayard, started in 2019 with a benefit of €85,58 and one year later has a collection for sale close to 1M Euro, making around €600 per month, with two main products including an online store and an art magazine.
9. Mapply ($180K/year)
Scott Wood, co-founder of Mapply, came up with the idea for his map print business after seeing the success of a similar brand called Mapiful. With a background in digital marketing and a love for travel and art, Scott saw an opportunity to create personalized and colorful map prints. By starting with offline validation and gradually expanding his product offerings, Scott has grown Mapply from a few hundred pounds in sales to over £30k ($40k) in prints per month, with plans to expand further in the future.
How much they make: $180K/year
How much did it cost to start: $200
Current team size: 0
UK-based co-founder grows map print company Mapply from a few hundred pounds a month in sales to over £30k ($40k~) in prints per month, without much marketing, and expands to brick-and-mortar stores while focusing on continuous product expansion.
10. Iris Scott Fine Arts ($1M/year)
How much they make: $1M/year
Current team size:
Artist Iris Scott crossed the $1 million revenue/year mark as an independent creative artist through business partnerships and social media promotion, with a Facebook following of 346K and an Instagram following of 241K.
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- 8,628 business ideas
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- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
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- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
