I came to painting the way most meaningful things arrive — gradually, and then all at once.

For most of my adult life, I made music. I spent the better part of the 2010s performing and recording with my band Hey Anna in New York — writing songs, releasing records, touring Japan and North America. Painting existed in the margins of that life: something I'd return to between tours or in the quiet stretches between records. It was a place to put things that didn't fit into a song.

When I moved to San Francisco, I left behind the music scene that had shaped me for years. The city gave me space I hadn't expected, and painting started filling more of it. Then came my daughter, and later, a head injury that pulled me away from work for a while. In that stillness — some of it chosen, some of it not — I found myself at the canvas more and more. Not as a substitute for music, but as something that belonged to me in a different way.

I work in acrylic on wood and canvas, mostly painting figures. People in quiet moments. Faces that are present and sometimes faceless. I'm drawn to the tension between intimacy and distance — the feeling of being close to someone and still not quite being able to reach them. I think that comes from being a songwriter. I've always been someone who watches, listens, and tries to translate what I feel into something someone else can recognize.

Both things — the music and the painting — come from the same place in me. An impulse to pay attention. To make something out of what I notice.

I'm based in San Francisco and available for commissions and collaborations. If something on this site moves you, I'd love to hear from you.

Erin Wilsterman

P.S. My latest music project, Femme Portâl, is releasing new music in the Spring of 2026. Visit https://www.femmeportal.com/ to sign up for our mailing list!