I love teaching, always have, and being an agent is a form of one-on-one teaching. In addition to my courses on my site, Make Art That Sells, I’m thrilled to offer my newest thing: Inner Circle, which is an exclusive small-group mentoring intensive. For 30 years I nurtured and mentored the artists whom I represented, drawing out their strengths and helping them to build thriving creative careers, and now I want to do the same for you.

Inner Circle is an incredible rare opportunity to spend six weeks with me exploring, evolving and creating your artistic career. Unlike a course with a set curriculum, this is a mentorship intensive. With a maximum of 12 participants, you’ll be part of a small exclusive group and you’ll also get to meet with me privately in a 1:1 to discuss your career. Join me for this incredible experience! Hurry, Inner Circle starts April 14 and there are only 6 spots left as of this writing.

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In addition to my beloved teaching platform, MATS, I’ve been wanting a platform to share my insights from many decades in the art business as agent and former illustrator, author, columnist, and co-founder of my teaching platform. Something that was freeform and allowed me to talk. One day, illustrator and student Katie Stack, a well-established presence on Substack, came over for lunch, and it hit me: Let’s do a Substack thing together.  So we’ve began a brand new Substack with live videos called Lilla’s Art Chats with Katie Stack. My 30 years of agenting illustrators combined with Katie Stack’s illustration experience combine for a lively chat. She asks me the questions that you might have wanted to ask me. It’s a nice complement to my courses. I hope you’ll join me!

Yay! I’m packing loads of art supplies, handouts and show and tell for my Color Quest Portugal Retreat March 2025 and I’ll be sure to share the highlights. Join me next year for my lettering retreat which I’ll announce in a bit. I just love doing these retreats! We have our own stunning quinta and private chef and all we do is make art. Beforehand, Andy and I will spend several days in Porto exploring street art, tiles and cafes as we acclimate to the time zone.

My three decades as an art agent for some of the most celebrated book publishers, advertising agencies, top designers, and  products for manufacturers of gift and home has given me a wealth of information on how to thrive as an illustrator, and my passion is to teach this to you.

As an agent, I’ve mentored top names in the business like Lisa Congdon, Helen Dardik, Suzy Ultman, Carolyn Gavin, Mike Lowery and Sarah Walsh. I know who succeeds and why, and I’m happy to share that with you in my courses.

Before I founded my agency, I was lucky to enjoy a thriving illustration career in New York for clients like Anna Wintour, the Grammys, Penguin Random House, Chronicle Books, and clients in Tokyo and Paris. All this enables me to craft illustration courses for you with the understanding of an artist. I get it! I get what is motivating, I love to trick you into doing your best work! Learn more here.

I did more to these pages this morning at a house in the countryside. Peaceful! I have more time to do my own art these days. When I did illustration full-time literally decades ago, things were different. There weren’t even gel pens! Colored pencils were too pale, and I don’t think there were glittery sparkle inks for fountain pens. Watercolor and gouache colors were so limited. Now it’s nuts! Metallic pinks! All kinds of brands! So delicious to explore! There were always dip pens and India ink, of course, still a true love of mine, but I feel like I’m freshly revisiting my watercolor art after all these years. I’m figuring things out, trying new things, and it’s a true pleasure. I’m a little rusty but the joy of putting wet paint on paper overrides everything.