Heather Winterling Ota is an American visual artist based in London and Seattle. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from Syracuse University in 1984 and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Painting at the Royal College of Art (forthcoming 2026).

Ota’s paintings are distinguished by their bold gestural marks and their abstract engagement with both landscape and figuration. Emphasizing the materiality of oil paint, she builds layered surfaces that create a sense of depth and visual richness. Recurring motifs—including the body, trees, and rivers—serve as both anchors and points of disruption within her compositions, contributing to a visual language that navigates the boundaries between presence and absence, structure and dissolution.