In 2020, Dawn Trimble was laid off during the pandemic while navigating a divorce. Instead of panic, she felt relief. That feeling told her she’d been in the wrong place.
She started painting and posting on Instagram, writing stories alongside her watercolor work. Within months, her first collection sold out in days and matched her corporate paycheck. That’s when she knew she could make this work.
Five years later, Dawn has built a sustainable practice with multiple revenue streams working together:
- Original watercolors
- Licensing partnerships for wall coverings
- Digital downloads
- Commissions
- Part-time university teaching
Her interior design background gave her a framework she still uses: design, business, and marketing must work in balance like a three-legged stool. She structures her week around her custody schedule—painting when her kids are with their father, handling business when they’re with her.
What keeps her from getting stuck? Faith. Dawn views herself as the conduit of her creative gifts, not the source. When she realizes it’s not about her, that’s when the work flows and the ideas come.
Her advice is simple: you have to start. Everyone has insecurities. Everyone is afraid. But inspiration has to find us working.
Listen
DAWN’S ACTION FOR YOU
You have to start. You can’t sit around wishing—it has to be an action. So get into your studio this week and make something. Let inspiration find you working.
Dawn M Trimble Quotes
“I felt a sense of freedom and that to me was a sign that I was in the wrong place.”
“I love writing and so I would write on Instagram, the post along with the art, and I gained followers.”
“It sold out within a couple of days, and the paycheck matched what I was making at work, and I thought, okay, I can possibly do this.”
“It’s a more natural thing to communicate with people now through marketing. It’s a natural thing. It doesn’t feel like ‘marketing.’ “
“I am not the source, but when I am in my right frame of mind and I understand my positioning, I am the conduit.”
“I was either going to find Jesus or stay in the marriage, and I chose Jesus.”
“When I realize it’s not about me, I think that’s when I produce my best work. And I think that’s when the ideas flow.”
Mentioned
Area Environments (wall covering company for interior designers/architects)
Wall Envy (wall covering company for homeowners)
Great Big Canvas (artist prints)
ADAC (Atlanta Decorative Arts Center)
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About Dawn M Trimble
Dawn M Trimble is an artist and educator living in South Georgia. Working primarily with water-based media, she builds her paintings by exploring the meditative interaction between water and color on a surface.
Drawing inspiration from her former career in design as well as her faith and a love for language, Dawn intuitively uses color, degrees of transparency and composition to covey the depth of emotions through experiences we all share as humans. She patiently builds compositions by merging unexpected colors, guiding delicate pencil lines and remaining cognizant of scale in each painting.
Follow Dawn on Instagram: @dawnmtrimble_art
