Today we’d like to introduce you to Bianca Youngers.
Hi Bianca, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been making art since college, but for most of my adult life I was also helping run Binks, a neighborhood bar on Alberta Street in Portland that my husband and I have owned for 25 years. Painting was always there in the background, but life, family, and business often came first.
During COVID, everything changed. Like so many small businesses, we were trying to figure out how to survive while supporting the people who worked for us. I started painting with a new level of commitment, and to my surprise, people began buying the work. Those sales helped carry me, and in small but meaningful ways, helped our employees through a very uncertain time. What began as a way to navigate one of the darkest seasons of our lives slowly became something much bigger.
Today I paint full time from my studio in Portland. I’m completely self-taught, which means my education has come through experimentation, failure, and an endless curiosity about the natural world. I’m fascinated by places that seem empty until you really pay attention—underwater worlds, deserts bursting with life, and the invisible connections between ourselves and the environments we inhabit.
Rather than painting landscapes as they appear, I’m interested in painting what they feel like from the inside. My work explores those in-between spaces where wonder, healing, mystery, and nature intersect—the places we recognize intuitively but struggle to describe with words. Looking back, every unexpected turn in my life led me here. My hope is that my paintings invite people to slow down, become present, and experience the world with a renewed sense of curiosity.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. Building an art career later in life has meant balancing family, a business, and more recently, significant health challenges. Over the past few years I’ve undergone multiple surgeries, including open-heart surgery, and there have been seasons where I’ve had to slow down or step away from the studio to recover.
As frustrating as those interruptions have been, they’ve also changed the way I see the world. They taught me that creativity isn’t about constantly producing—it’s about paying attention. Some of my most meaningful ideas came during the quiet moments when I wasn’t able to paint at all.
Being self-taught has brought its own challenges, too. There wasn’t a roadmap or anyone telling me I was doing it “right.” Every opportunity, every rejection, every experiment has become part of my education. Looking back, I wouldn’t trade that path. It forced me to develop my own voice instead of trying to paint like someone else.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I create large-scale abstract paintings inspired by the unseen rhythms of the natural world. My work explores the places in between—underwater environments, deserts that appear barren but are teeming with life, and the invisible threads that connect us to the landscapes we inhabit. Rather than painting what a place looks like, I’m interested in painting what it feels like to be inside it.
I’m completely self-taught, and I think that’s shaped my work in important ways. I’ve never felt confined by traditional expectations of what a landscape or botanical painting should be. I build worlds through layers of color, texture, and organic forms, inviting viewers to slow down, linger, and discover something new each time they look.
I’ve often said I’m trying to paint the sound that underwater makes—that quiet crackle, the weightlessness, and the feeling of existing in a place that is both familiar and impossible to fully describe. I’m interested in creating paintings that people don’t just look at, but experience.
What I’m most proud of isn’t a single painting or exhibition—it’s that I’ve built a career by staying true to my own voice. My work has grown organically through collectors, galleries, and conversations rather than chasing trends. If there’s something that sets me apart, I hope it’s that my paintings create an experience. I want people to feel immersed in a place where wonder, abundance, and curiosity quietly unfold, reminding us that some of the most meaningful parts of life can’t always be explained with words.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I grew up in Bend, Oregon, where I spent most of my childhood outside with a very active imagination. In the winter, when the irrigation canal in our front yard froze over, I’d bundle up, head out with a notebook, and pretend I was an ice scientist documenting my discoveries. In the summer, when the ditch rider came to treat the canal and the tadpoles were in danger, I’d scoop up as many as I could into five-gallon buckets and try to save them.
Looking back, I think I’ve always been fascinated by observing the natural world—not just for what it is, but for the stories and mysteries hidden within it.
I also loved performing. I played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in first grade and said yes to every school play, talent show, and community theatre production I could find. At one point I even put on a one-woman performance of Annie for our neighbors. I sold tickets, sang the entire soundtrack from beginning to end, and they patiently sat through the whole thing.
Those two parts of me—the curious observer and the storyteller—never really went away. They simply found a different outlet. Today, instead of acting on a stage, I tell stories through paint, inviting people into worlds that blur the line between imagination and experience.
Pricing:
- Visit current available work: www.biancayoungersart.com • Studio visits: By appointment in Portland, Oregon
- Original paintings: starting at $900
- Most collected works: $240”-$4800
- Commissions: Available on a limited basis
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.biancayoungersart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biancayoungersart
