Artist Statement

Ashley Wittling (b. 1986) is a watercolor and mixed media artist/illustrator from Wisconsin.

Ashley’s art is a quiet invitation into the liminal spaces between the natural and the imagined, where flowers, animals, bones and ethereal figures converge in delicate, poetic narratives. Each piece explores how life and decay, growth and stillness, light and shadow converse—how the smallest detail can become a vessel for larger emotional or spiritual truths. Working primarily in watercolor and layered oil glazes, she seeks to balance the fragility of transparent washes with the depth of richer tones. The layering process becomes a meditation: slow built layers allow the work to unveil itself, and leaving space for vulnerabilities and uncertainties. Compositions draw from folklore, myth, and the symbolic language of nature—not to tell literal stories, but to evoke a sense of wonder, longing, and reconnection. The goal is to stir a sense of recognition: that we are not separate from the natural world, but part of a web of cycles, both visible and unseen. Ultimately, her practice is an invitation to pause—to notice the fragile, fleeting moments often overlooked, and to step into spaces where the ordinary becomes luminous and alive.

Today, Ashley Wittling resides in west central Wisconsin with her son, fiancé, and a plethora of plants and animals that continue to inspire her work.