MEET EMILY
I’m Emily Whitish, an abstract artist living in the Pacific Northwest. I make original paintings and fine art prints using rich color, movement, contrast, and intuitive layering.
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WA
My Story
At 47 years old, I decided my next adventure would be simpler and more personal. I wanted work that gave something back to my body and spirit. Going back to painting was the answer.
Around the same time, I moved from Seattle, where I had lived for nearly twenty-five years, to Bainbridge Island. The move shifted something. Here, the creative community feels close to the surface. Ferries pass through the Sound. The air smells faintly of salt. Birds gather in the evergreens outside my window. It is beautiful, a little quirky, excessively friendly, and full of artists doing their work. It gave me space to return to mine.
I have been an artist my whole life. As a child, I drew constantly, usually with whatever art supplies I could get my hands on. My mom always encouraged my creativity and my dad made sure I always had a fresh sketchbook when I needed one.
For much of my adult life, creativity had to share space with practical work. I became a therapist, then later built a website design business for other therapists. I loved design work, but after years of spending long hours at a computer, it didn’t support my aging body or give me as much creative freedom as I wanted.
My Process
My paintings begin with a loose intention. I may start with a color combination, a shape, a mood, or a spontaneous swipe of the brush. From there, the work unfolds.
I layer, add, remove, step back, wait, and respond. Each step informs the next. Every move is a new discovery.
I know the piece is finished when the tension and blank space anchor one another, and I no longer feel the urge to keep fussing with it.
That is what I love about abstraction. I don’t need a rigid agenda. I don’t need to reproduce the world neatly. I love when color, movement, and emotion come together in a way I could not have planned.
MEDIUMS & MATERIALS
My work moves between acrylic on canvas or paper, often with pastel, and digital painting in Procreate using brushes that emulate traditional media.
Each method offers a different physical experience, but both rely on the same process of responding, revising, and allowing the layers to reveal themselves.
Digital Painting
All of the art currently in the print shop were created digitally on an iPad using Procreate (a digital painting program), but the process is surprisingly old-fashioned. Every brushstroke, mark, and layer is made by hand using Procreate’s built-in brushes. No AI, algorithms, or automated image generation. I love working this way alongside traditional painting because I can follow an idea from start to finish without waiting for paint to dry, there's absolutely nothing to clean up (a personal favorite), and the finished artwork can be printed in different sizes to suit your space.
Watch my process →
A FEW THINGS ABOUT ME
Making art > Almost all other plans.
I paint to discover what happens when I stop trying to control what happens.
Curiosity has saved more paintings than talent.
A painting is done when it creates enough questions to keep you looking.
I believe art should give a room some nerve.
EXPLORE THE COLLECTIONS
