Ludmilla Pilat Welch, landscape painter, was born April 1, 1867, to Charles F. and Anna Pilat in Ossining, New York. Her father, a political refugee from Austria, escaped the Austrian revolution of 1848 by immigrating to the United States. He settled for a time in Dalton, Georgia where he became a peach farmer. After the American Civil War he and his wife moved to Ossining, New York.  

Pilat's childhood was enriched by exposure to art, music, and literature in her family's home. She was encouraged to sketch but there seems to be no record of her receiving formal art training.

With the consent of her parents, Ludmilla Pilat married Thaddeus Welch on 14 July 1883 at the age of sixteen. The couple moved to California in 1893, first settling in Pasadena, then in a rustic cabin at Steep Ravine on the western slopes of Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, and their final move was to Santa Barbara in 1905 where they lived at 211 East Sola Street.

Ludmilla's work was profoundly influenced by her artist husband who seems to have encouraged her from their first meeting. They painted together and sometimes their styles are almost identical. She painted rural landscapes, coastal scenes including a number of Santa Cruz Island coast scenes, and many California adobe structures.

While her work would never reach the pinnacle achieved by her husband, it is represented in the collections of the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, the Oakland Museum of California, the Historical Museum Foundation of Sonoma County, and the Santa Barbara Historical Society.

Ludmilla Pilat Welch died on a train on May 17, 1925.