about the artist

Southwest Florida native, Erin W. Ernst, has had a life-long love of art.  She graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from the University of South Florida in 2004. Ernst has always been drawn to interpreting the female form, as well as woman’s self-discovery and growth in her artwork. After the births of her 3 children, and experiencing the personal transformation that comes along with motherhood, Ernst's artwork moved in the direction of those life-changing moments of the childbearing years. She creates portraits of these intimate, but powerful moments, akin to rites of passage, in her paintings of pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding.

She is also the go-to local artist for women wanting to adorn their pregnant bellies with henna or body paint, or to have their plaster belly casts painted & customized - transforming them into priceless, and very personal, works of art.

In recent years, Ernst has shown her paintings, and received awards, in the juried show, Trust Birth Art Exhibition in St. Pete, FL, as well as shown, and sold, paintings in the Nude Nite art show in Tampa, FL. Her work can be found in numerous private collections.