Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Kenney.
Hi Emily, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Being an artist has always been something that I wanted to do from as early as I can remember. I actually have a little childhood drawing of mine that my mom had framed for my birthday, hanging in my studio that says, “When I grow up, I want to be an artist,” with a little doodle of myself at an easel with a brush in one hand and paint palette in the other. I’ve always been the creative type – from begging my parents to take me to craft stores to taking every art class available to me in school.
Naturally, I decided to study art in college, which is where I discovered my passion for painting, and I knew this was something I wanted to figure out how to do long-term as a career. After college, I wasn’t sure how I was going to put my degree to use. I worked several different jobs, from retail to walking dogs to teaching classes at a paint and sip place, but I was always painting on the side during my free time. I like to say that I went to school for art, but I was also self-taught – there is a huge gap between learning the fundamentals in art school and actually going out on your own, creating work, and trying to figure out how to sell it. I sold a few small things here and there to family and friends (shoutout to my mom’s Facebook friends list) and eventually decided to open an Etsy shop to really try to make this happen – the rest is history!
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I like to say that my career as an artist came naturally, but that doesn’t mean it has always been easy. I started painting landscapes back in 2020, right after I moved across the country to Texas. I’m a pretty outdoorsy person, so being stuck at home, especially in a new place, was difficult to say the least. I began searching “hikes near me,” and much to my dismay, the results showed our neighborhood park as the best option. Painting one of the places that I missed seemed like the next best thing to do, and I was immediately hooked. This led to me creating my first painting series, and probably the one that I’m best known for and most proud of – I created a landscape painting for each of the 50 states!
Since then, I’ve painted hundreds of other landscape paintings, and I have no plans to stop. I love the idea of being able to travel vicariously through art and try to capture the feeling of a place rather than focus on all of the tiny details. There’s obviously a lot more to the story of becoming a professional artist than just randomly painting a landscape one day – plenty of “failed” paintings, personal sacrifices, and way more time than I ever expected spent on figuring out how to actually market my art business, but it has all been 100% worth it to be able to spend my time doing something that I love.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in painting landscapes, and I’m definitely best known for the “50 States” series that I mentioned before, where I created one painting for each of the 50 states! Those paintings were a huge stepping stone in my career – I saw how people were responding to them, watched them sell out of my Etsy shop, and for the first time, I thought to myself, “WOW, I could actually do this!” It was a huge confidence boost and pushed me to continue to pursue art as a real career option.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I feel like I have a lot of the same interests now that I had as a child. I’ve been passionate about art from the very beginning, as I mentioned before, always trying to get my hands on any art supplies that I could. Throughout high school, you could typically find multiple works in progress for my art classes strewn about my bedroom, and I even remember rearranging my room a few times, trying to hide paint stains in the carpet from my parents.
Beyond my artsy side, I’ve also always had a strong love for nature and any activity that gets me outdoors, whether that’s just sitting outside on a patio, working on my garden, or going on camping or hiking trip. My love for art and nature started early and stuck around, shaping who I am and what I do now as a full-time artist. I love being able to combine these two passions together through landscape paintings – and it’s not lost on me that I’m able to make a living doing something that I enjoy and feel passionate about.
Pricing:
- Fine Art Prints (starting at $20)
Contact Info:
- Website: emilykenneyart.etsy.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/emilykenneyart
- Facebook: facebook.com/emilykenneyart
- Other: tiktok.com/@emilykenneyart
