Lilly Walters Schermerhorn,
the
un-likely artist!

For many years I was best known as an expert on the world of professional speaking. I have written several books on the subject, and others. This led me to the famous baseball pitcher Jim Abbott. Now I book Jim Abbott's calendar as a motivational speaker, and I paint stuff!

As to my painting, I knew for years that I HAD NO ARTISTIC ABILITY. I knew it for a fact. Then I got married in 1998. My husband, is a serious kind of guy, a retired cop, now a polygraph lie detector expert. Talk about "un-likely," he loves those tacky painted yard signs. Go figure. Anyway, I said, "No, way! Not at my house!" In 1998 he talked me into allowing one tiny sign in our yard. He said he would do all of the work. So, we went together and picked out a Christmas pattern that I didn't find too objectionable. Just one! I was not going to have more than that.

As he was sitting in the workshop painting, I went to check it out. "How do you do that?"

“I just put paint between the lines. Want to try?”

I did. It opened the floodgates! Next I tried stencils, and other types of patterns. Finally I tried a few simple things freehand. This lead to my first art book, Cobblestone Cottages From Junk Jars, then an ebook, Paint A Cobbletone Courtyard On Your Cement Floor. Now I have all kinds of paint patterns for sale on-line and a book on how to paint on fabric. Then one day my church asked me to help at a Festival painting faces. "Oh, I can't do that!" They insisted, and here I am.

Face paintng gives me the most joy of any art project I have ever done. In addition to going to corporate and private events, I have a private face paining art studio. In June of 2008 I founded the West Coast Face Painters, which is a support group for other professional face painters.

Face Painter in Claremont, La Verne, San Dimas, Glendora, Upland, Montclair, Rancho Cucamonga, Azusa and Pomona