Emily Buchanan was born in 1966 in Beverly Farms, Massachussetts. She began painting as a child with her grandmother, Eloise Gardner. Emily studied at The Lyme Academy, The National Academy of Art and the Art Student’s League, but credits the Boston school painter Paul Ingbretson for her classical training in drawing and painting.

Buchanan works primarily around her native New England when weather permits. Last year she travelled locally for commissions to Islesboro, Maine, Squam Lake, in New Hampshire, and Martha's Vineyard. She travels to other destinations when the cold prohibits plein air painting, or for specific commissions. She has painted in destinations such as Australia, Thailand, Costa Rica, Jackson Hole, England, France, and the Virgin Islands.