amy massey

Amy Massey says her contemporary ethereal watercolor paintings are like portals, welcoming the viewer to draw inward and rest within their vibrant, meditative essence.

Her works also serve as an anchor for intimate reflection, grounding and growth, said the North Carolina painter.

Artist: Born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, Massey received a BFA from Columbus College of Art & Design in Columbus, OH.

After college, Massey embarked on a month-long road trip to explore different places, mostly along the West Coast.

The grandeur of the forests of the Pacific Northwest drew her in. She decided to stay in Portland and lived there from 2010 to 2014, working in the restaurant industry and painting in her free time.

After living in Portland, OR, Massey wanted to return to the East Coast to be closer to family.

In 2014, she chose Asheville more or less on a whim.

“I knew I loved the Blue Ridge Mountains and had heard that Asheville had a great arts community,” said Massey.

Within the first week of moving to Asheville, Massey met her husband (ceramic artist Andrew Massey) and got into massage therapy school, which was her main career path as she worked her way toward doing art full time.

In early 2026, Massey finally stepped back from massage therapy after 11 years to focus solely on art.

Company/studio: Amy Massey Studio is located in Wedge Studios in Asheville’s River Arts District. Her working studio and gallery are open to the public on a daily basis.

Massey has been selling work since 2010, but started experimenting with watercolor and focusing on her current body of work in 2019.

In the beginning: Initially, her studies were focused on photography and its ability to intimately capture the essence of a place or person.

As she honed her creative vision, Massey said she began yearning for a means to capture less tangible aspects of the human experience. Painting became the perfect outlet for that exploration, she added.

Art & materials: Watercolor and gouache with flowing abstract and organic forms on natural white cold press watercolor paper.

Original paintings ($150 to $6,000).
Reproductions (start at $40 unframed).

“All of my works are framed in beautiful white oak frames handmade by my husband, with the wood sourced from a century-old white oak tree that grew in our front yard,” said Massey.

“We sadly had to have it taken down when it started dropping limbs, but have been grateful to breathe new life into the tree through his beautiful frames.”

Themes: Motherhood, grief and growth are common themes.

“I like to think of my work as emotional landscapes, with each piece encapsulating a different concept or feeling,” said Massey.

“And many of my works are celebrations of the small sparks of connection we reach for when times feel dark”.

Tools:

Tiny paint brushes are a must-have. Her current most-used brushes are Round Aqua Elite brushes by Princeton.
Her favorite tool is a small wooden brush rest, hand-carved by a woodworker friend.

Inspirations:

The intricacy and grace of the art nouveau movement.
Paintings of Hilma af Klint and Georgia O’Keeffe.

Special commissions:

Created her Confluence diptych as a wedding gift. The person who commissioned it sent Massey descriptions of the couple and some images from their wedding as inspiration.
Conscious Entanglement, a single painting inspired by the conscious entanglement concept, something the couple/ clients had bonded over when they first met.

When the commission was proposed, Massey had been hooked on a podcast called the “Telepathy Tapes.”

“I was inspired by a number of concepts explored throughout the podcast,” said Massey. “Many of which fell within my interpretation of conscious entanglement.”

Recent honors: