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Artist Bio Emma Furtado was born and raised in Campbell, California. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from San José State University and spent ten years working in the tech industry before returning to visual art. After taking ceramics classes in high school and college, she later taught herself to paint.

Furtado began working with oils in 2016, but it wasn’t until 2020 that her practice took hold. Starting with pencil drawings and quickly shifting to acrylic paint, she developed a prolific studio routine that soon filled her home with canvases. Acrylic remains her primary medium.

Her paintings—often depicting horses, figures, florals, and landscapes—are built through many layers and rich textures. She approaches painting almost sculpturally, drawing on her early experience with ceramics to shape surfaces through accumulation and gesture.