Artist Bio
Emily Glass is a Pittsburgh-based visual artist whose work blends realism and abstraction, using bold color, dynamic movement, and expressive texture to explore emotion, nature, and human experience. Her paintings often reflect joy, positivity, or resilience.
A lifelong artist, Emily has pursued both formal and informal study across a wide range of media. She works primarily in acrylic painting, and her practice also includes oil, mixed media, murals, drawing, and illustration. While her early work focused on realism, her practice has evolved toward more expressive abstraction, shaped by personal and artistic growth in recent years.
Before committing fully to her art practice, Emily spent twenty years working in information technology. In 2020, she made a decisive shift to focus fully on her art practice and founded Feel the Rain Studio.
Emily’s work has been exhibited in galleries and art events throughout the Pittsburgh area. In both 2024 and 2025, she was awarded first place in Pittsburgh Magazine’s Best of the ’Burgh for Best Artist, and second place in Pittsburgh City Paper’s Best of PGH for Best Visual Artist (Fine Art).
She works from her home studio in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. Outside the studio, Emily enjoys gardening, traveling, live music, and spending time with her husband and their very demanding cats.
Artist Statement
My work explores emotion, nature, and human experience through the space between realism and abstraction. I am drawn to bold color, movement, and expressive texture as ways to communicate feeling directly, allowing intuition and the visual response of paint on canvas to guide the work as it unfolds.
Working primarily in acrylic, I often begin a painting with one idea or image in mind, only to change direction as layers develop and unexpected interactions emerge. I respond to what I see in the moment—adjusting, reworking, or abandoning initial plans in favor of what feels visually and emotionally true. This openness allows the work to evolve organically rather than adhere to a predetermined outcome.
Over time, my practice has shifted from a more realistic approach toward expressive abstraction, reflecting a deeper trust in instinct and responsiveness. Through this work, I aim to create paintings that feel inviting and emotionally resonant, offering space for viewers to connect, reflect, and bring their own experiences into the work.