I grew up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where being outside was just part of life. I was always drawn to art too, chasing every medium I could get my hands on throughout school.

In 2021 my husband and I were living in the Australian Outback and he gifted me a set of watercolor paints and brushes, encouraging me to try something I had always wanted to explore. I taught myself off YouTube, and because we were planning our wedding at the same time I began painting flowers, wanting to preserve my bouquet somehow. That one whim turned me into a botanical watercolor artist.

In the Outback I worked with what I had, mostly eucalyptus and small wildflowers. Now in Long Beach I am completely spoiled for choice. Farmers markets, overgrown gardens, poppies pushing through concrete. It's hard to narrow down.

Along the way my work found its way into British Vogue, four times across 2024 and 2025, which still doesn't feel entirely real.

At the end of last year I started feeling like I needed a change. I've been working on something new ever since, a large scale painting of a pigment cabinet I discovered in a windmill in Holland where they still grind down pigments for paint to this day. It's full of every color imaginable and it has been the most career defining work I've ever made. I'm still not done with it.

Follow along to see the painting come to life on my Instagram @artbyemmalian