Alyssa Whetstone ’19 turns watercolor side hustle into thriving art business

“I was the kid always trying to get my friends to make art with me,” says Alyssa Whetstone ’19. “Art has always been my thing. I was the ‘art kid.’”

But when considering a career in art, Whetstone was pragmatic. Making a living through art seemed like a tough gig, while teaching art felt like a more predictable path. 

So when Whetstone enrolled as an art education major at Bethel, she imagined herself teaching art in an elementary school—not slowly turning a watercolor side hustle into a full-time business of her own.

Gathering tools

Whetstone dabbled in a variety of art mediums throughout high school and in her first classes at Bethel, with acrylic emerging as her favorite. Although watercolor wasn’t Whetstone’s preferred style, she discovered a similar medium called gouache in Painting II.

“Gouache is similar to watercolors but opaque, so it is kind of like acrylic,” she says. “So I decided I could get on board with it.’”

When she studied abroad in Spain, she did a lot of pen drawings, an eventual hallmark of her work. “I got to hone my artistic skills at Bethel—skills I still use today. It was really fun to dabble in styles, and just play,” she says. 

Whetstone’s major split her time between two worlds.

In one set of classes, she studied ceramics, printmaking, painting, and drawing. In the other, she explored psychology, lesson planning, pedagogy, and communication skills that prepared her for the classroom.

“Bethel gave me a space to explore and play with my craft and the opportunity to learn how to teach through a Christian lens. Having that sort of environment is unique, and I am thankful for it,” she says.

Years later, those two halves of her education would begin to overlap in unexpected ways.

A blank canvas

After graduating from Bethel, Whetstone taught kindergarten through fifth grade in Lakeville, Minnesota. She was the only art teacher at her school, so she taught every student. 

“Kids love art, so art class is a space they want to learn. That made it really fun,” she says. “I loved coming up with fun projects, hanging art in the hallway, and meeting kids where art was their thing, because that was me.”

Whetstone’s teaching philosophy took shape in the classroom, but its roots stretched back to her childhood.

“While growing up, I noticed something: My friends began deciding whether or not they were ‘an artist,’” she says, “And once they made that decision, it stuck. Some kept creating. Others never picked up a pencil or paintbrush again.”

Whetstone’s goal in the classroom was to encourage enjoyment regardless of ability. 

“To quote Bob Ross, ‘Talent is a pursued interest. Anything that you're willing to practice, you can do,’” Whetstone says of the American painter. Her classroom was a place where students could get messy. There was no right or wrong way to tackle a project, and the goal was to just play. 

“We even had a very cheesy greeting in class to start our day,” Whetstone says. “I would start with ‘Hello, my most amazing artists,’ and they would respond ‘Hello, my most amazing art teacher.’”

When you were in Whetstone’s classroom, you were an artist, and it never depended on how good you were at art. 

Halfway through her first year teaching, Whetstone began experiencing severe back pain—later diagnosed as an autoimmune disease. She was in and out of urgent care, sometimes on crutches, searching for answers. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and like millions of teachers, she suddenly found herself teaching from home.

“I never thought I’d be teaching from my desk at home. But honestly, it ended up being a blessing in disguise because I was in my worst pain, where I couldn’t physically walk,” she says.

Confined to a chair for much of the day, Whetstone returned to watercolors almost by accident. Acrylic painting required too much movement—walking to wash brushes, cleaning supplies, managing heavier materials.

“I decided to just grab watercolors because the paint isn’t permanent. I can’t ruin a paintbrush if I don’t wash it off,” she says.

Whetstone pulled out her watercolor sets from college, combined them with her pen-and-ink drawing skills, and spent the summer painting Minnesota scenes. When she tried selling them, they were a hit.

Full Palette

While Whetstone continued teaching full-time, her watercolor pursuits grew on the side. Summers became art fair season as she worked to make her side hobby pay for itself.

“That’s what I told everyone, but I had so much fun with the business aspects of my side hustle,” she says.

She used skills like marketing, sales, organization, scheduling, planning, communicating, and networking that she honed in her education classes.

Minnesota scenes turned into stickers and greeting cards. Whetstone went to Instagram to share her art.

“It was January—the New Year—and reel challenges were a big thing. I decided to paint something every day and post about it,” she says. She primarily posted voiceover videos explaining what she was painting and how she was doing it.

“I didn’t even realize that the teacher in me was teaching,” she says. Soon, comments and messages started pouring in from around the world: ‘Hey I tried your painting! Look at mine.’

“I was like, Wait a second—I could teach more than elementary art. It wasn’t even on my radar, but I realized I could use Instagram as a platform to teach art! I’m a teacher. It just made sense,” she says. 

Whetstone realized Instagram was an international platform she could use to show people that creating art could be fun.

She then created her first online course—the Watercolor Habit Course, now renamed the Watercolor Confidence Course. The 30-video course became the first of many products Whetstone would develop.

She eventually expanded to watercolor workbooks, partnering first with a local printer before demand pushed production to a larger company.

“By then, I was both teaching and growing this little side business that wasn’t really a side business anymore. It kind of turned into its own business,” Whetstone says.

What began as a creative outlet was steadily becoming something bigger—and Whetstone could feel the shift happening in real time.

“I found myself in the classroom thinking about my business,” Whetstone says. “I still loved teaching, but I realized I wasn’t fully present in either place anymore. That’s when I realized I needed to choose one path.”

Painting

Although Whetstone decided to leave the classroom, her passion for teaching never went away.

“People say they enjoy my classes because I know how to teach art. I gained the skills from my education at Bethel and my teaching experience,” she says. “Not only do I understand the mediums really well—including color theory, mixing, and tones—but then I also understand the art of teaching. It's been really cool to combine.”

Her company, Alyssa Whetstone Art, now offers fine art prints, greeting cards, stickers, online watercolor courses, watercolor workbooks for both children and adults, kits for parties, in-person classes, art supplies, and wholesale. Today, her products are sold at 41 stores and boutiques across Minnesota and beyond.

Whetstone’s philosophy hasn’t changed either. When teaching adults she still emphasizes that you don’t have to be good at painting, but she does want them to be successful. 

“I want them to have a finished picture they are proud of,” she says. Many of her products include pre-drawn sketches so that adults don’t need to learn more than one skill at a time. “It keeps them motivated," she says.

Her goal remains the same: “I get to open people’s eyes to the beauty of creation and to reclaim the creativity that we are innately made with.”

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