Community AMA: Wed, Sep 24, 2026 at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT Join Us.

About Us

Evolve exists on one premise: anybody can learn to create art at a professional level.

We teach art the way a language is taught — an alphabet first, then a vocabulary, and eventually poetry.

The founders

Portrait of Kevin Murphy

Kevin Murphy

Founder

Kevin has painted professionally since 1993 — nearly six hundred commissioned works in illustration and portraiture. In 2009 he founded the Art Academy in Somerset County, New Jersey, where the Evolve curriculum was developed and refined in the classroom for a decade before coming online. Every lesson in the program is his method for teaching art the way a language is taught: an alphabet first, then a vocabulary, then poetry.

Portrait of Mitch Bowler

Mitch Bowler

Founder

Mitch designed the systems that power Evolve, after a decade spent building AAA art studios in Shanghai and learning what it takes to produce serious art with a team spread across the world. Evolve is his answer to a simple question: what would it take to make real art education accessible and affordable everywhere?

A young Kevin Murphy and George Takei holding a commissioned portrait on a lawn
Kevin delivering a commissioned portrait to George Takei — one of nearly six hundred commissions since 1993.
Kevin Murphy standing in front of one of his paintings
Kevin with one of his paintings.

A real school, brought online

Evolve didn’t start as a website. It started in 2009 as a brick-and-mortar art academy in Somerset County, New Jersey, where the curriculum was taught, tested, and refined in person for a decade. What worked stayed; what didn’t was cut.

That decade produced a method built on three things — value, edge, and color — taught in a set order, one difficult thing at a time. Command those and there is a clear path to producing consistent, high-quality art. No guessing, and no “talent” required beyond the desire to learn.

Today the same program runs online. The box of professional materials arrives at your door, the assignments arrive in order, and instructors give you feedback on the work you have actually made — wherever in the world you paint.

The world is Evolve’s classroom

See how the program works, what it costs, and what comes out the other side.