Lyn Smuts was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1951. She obtained a BA (Fine Art) from the Michaelis School of Fine Art of the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1972, and a BA (Honours) from the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg in 1973, and spent time as a post-graduate student at the Academie voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent in 1976. She held various lecturing posts, the last being lecturer in Printmaking at the University of Stellenbosch Department of Fine Art from 1981 to 1988.

She is currently a full-time artist, living and working in Stellenbosch. Apart from five one person shows, she has participated in numerous group shows. Her works is represented in various public collections, amongst others in the IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the Durban Art Gallery and the collections of the Universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch and the Orange Free State. Her work has been shown in curated shows in Belgium, Germany and the USA, and she participated in the Caversham Centre for Artists and Writers ‘Hourglass 2000’ International Residency Program in 2000.