My personal challenge is to create the most striking photography on a personal level, then share that vision. My photography realistically represents the subject and composition. I also develop an artistic, creative from an original digital image that has an imaginative interpretation. 

I photograph travel, coastal scenery, landscapes, nature, cityscapes. 

I prefer vibrant color, like bold graphics and use the best light possible for impact.

I offer my artwork in a variety of media types. Metal print, acrylic, wood, canvas and framed art. I also have image merchandise & notecards on my website. Online ordering with direct fulfillment offered.

It’s been a joy to be part of the Half Moon Bay community, participating in various organizations, work & volunteer activity over the years, fortunate to be a local Coast-side resident for the last 39 years. The natural surroundings and local community enrich me. 

Barbara Masek Photography has also been a commercial photography service business since 2010. I work with clients in head & portrait, event, and promotional assignments. https://www.barbaramasekphotography.com 

https://www.barbaramasekphoto.com

View more digital photography art and sign up to receive previews of new releases, and seasonal promotions. 

https://www.barbaramasekphoto.com

Follow me on social!    

https://www.instagram.com/barbaramasekphoto 

https://www.facebook.com/barbara.masek 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbaramasekphoto    

I look for the sacredness of life and the beauty that lives within the world. Through my empathic connection and awareness, my photography seeks to capture the wonder and mystery of life. Each moment is unique and special. Embodying more than just the physical; it’s a window into the spirit world.

This vision brings forth a love for all living creatures. Leaving one with a sense of harmony, oneness, inner calm, and peace.

Knowing within my heart that this captured beauty can stir the soul instills a belief that the web of life can be preserved and wild animals and places can be protected for posterity.

It all began because my dad was a deer hunter, and as his son, I was expected to follow in his footsteps. I killed many birds, ground squirrels, and rabbits as a young boy. Then, in my teens, with my first big rifle, I took up deer hunting. That was short-lived. After watching the light of life go out of a black-tailed buck’s eyes, I choose to preserve the lives of animals. This was a seminal moment in becoming the nature photographer I am today.

My father’s Ramrod Ranch, now mine, in the upper reaches of the Arroyo Seco Valley, Greenfield, California, has become my beloved and sacred place, where I learned to love wildlife, especially birds. I became fascinated with their beautiful sounds, varied and gorgeous coloring, and exciting bird behaviors.

I have cultivated a passionate desire to create nature images that are alive and beautiful. Honing my photographic talents and developing my artistic style allows me to capture the majesty and sacredness of life. I have also learned to love wildlife and the natural world by photographing birds and other animals in such proximity.

Christine Holub Carrig’s artistic journey began under the vast, ever-changing skies of Kansas, where fluting colors and luminous expanses shaped her deep appreciation for light and hue. This early inspiration led her to study graphic design at UC Santa Cruz, where she refined her eye for composition, color theory, and visual storytelling. She later earned honors at St. Mary’s College, expanding her creative approach through the study of marketing and business management.

Christine’s current work is a fusion of nature, nostalgia, and sentiment—woven together through an expressive use of color, asymmetrical compositions, and a keen sensitivity to negative space. Inspired by a series of WWII love letters, her latest collection layers history with emotion, using torn paper, hand-printed textures, and gold leaf to create pieces that feel like letters themselves—whispering fragments of a story through delicate layers. Intertwined with these echoes of the past are hand-drawn florals inspired by coastal wildflowers, their organic forms symbolizing resilience, devotion, and the fleeting beauty of love. Rooted in a deep connection to the natural world and the quiet poetry of human connection, her art is a tribute to memory, longing, and the beauty of nature.

Collection Title:

Spring Flowers & Love Letters:
This collection is inspired by the fleeting beauty of California Coastal wildflowers and the intimacy of love letters—both delicate, ephemeral, and deeply expressive. Each piece captures nature’s poetry and the sentimentality of handwritten words, woven together in texture and color. At heart, I am a romantic, drawn to the quiet emotions that linger in petals and paint.

Coastal Flowers Mixed Media:
Each floral piece features a delicate coastal wildflower, their intricate patterns and organic shapes pressed into modeling paste, preserving nature’s artistry in exquisite detail. Soft washes of vibrant watercolor breathe life into each imprint, highlighting its natural beauty. Finally, they are carefully cut and mounted onto a hand-printed acrylic background, enriched with gel plate textures, creating a layered, tactile composition that echoes the beauty of the wild coast.

Love Letter Collage:
I came across a collection of beautifully handwritten love letters from WWII—Maurice, who was a sailor stationed in Pearl Harbor months before the start of the War— pours his heart out to his beloved Jeanette. Each note begins with the tender words, “Hello Darling.” His longing, devotion, and affection echoed through every page, a testament to love enduring across distance and time. Inspired by this poignant exchange, I created collages using torn copies of the letters, layered with tissue, hand-printed papers, hand-drawn florals, and touches of gold leaf—each piece designed to feel like a letter itself, revealing only glimpses of their conversation beneath delicate layers of sentiment and memory.

If you are interested in reading the the love letters from Maurice his “darling” Jeanette you can find them here:

“Love Letters from a Sailor in the Pacific”  https://www.usni.org/archives/memoirs/love-letters-sailor-pacific-part-1

Working with Encaustic Hot Wax, and Resin with various techniques and tools to complete each project. When it comes to painting with Encaustics a few favorite tools are my Batik Pen and Mini Iron. Working with a torch and heat gun assists in creating different effects. Very thin layers of wax are brushed on and heated, to bond to the previous layer creating a solid work of art.

When it comes to working with Resin my favorite tools are a hand torch and silicon molds. Many of my pieces are created with molds so it can easily be shaped and won’t leak onto the table, and removes easily once cured. While using molds your creative edge is tinting the resin, adding a variety of materials into the resin and pushing the tinted resin from layers to surface shaping with a heat gun or hand tools. There are times I paint onto multiple surface pours to create 3D imagery. There are endless possibilities!

In both Encaustic & Resin my favorite themes are the Ocean scenes, Florals and Abstract impressions.

I offer workshops on a limited basis. Commissions are welcome.

My Art takes the form of: Wall Hangings and Paintings both Large and Small, 3D forms of Bowls, Vases, Containers, Chess Sets, Platters, side & coffee tables and more.

David Ebner has designed and created memorable art for Television and Cinema since he was 18 years of age. Listed by Wired Magazine as one of Hollywood’s most creative individuals, Ebner has contributed to over 70 feature films and has worked with notable auteurs such as Steven Spielberg, Guillermo Del Toro, Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton, Stephen Sommers, Francis Ford Coppola, Taylor Hackford, David Fincher, John Woo, Frank Darabont, among others.

While only 22 years of age, Dateline NBC and Entertainment Tonight, the two leading cable programs were branded with title graphics created by Ebner and his team. On top of that, Ebner oversaw the graphics for HBO, Nat Geo Channel, ESPN, Skybox, among others, winning BDA and Promaxx awards.

Ebner joined director Guillermo Del Toro for Hellboy, then as a producer and production partner for Pan’s Labyrinth, in which his team created the visual effects. They won over 100 film festival awards and won best in show at SigGraph’s Electronic Theater, representing the very best in Visual Effects that year.

As the Creative Director and Senior VFX Supervisor of Cafefx, Ebner and team created the films for Universal Studio’s “Wizarding World of Harry Potter.”  It is still considered the most successful theme park addition, with an immediate boost of 1 million annual attendees to the park.

At Ocean Blue Vault, Ebner is pleased to introduce his fine art.  His paintings reflect the emotion, passion, and feelings which percolate his creative mind.

Ebner’s watercolor, pencil and acrylic paintings reflect the emotion, passion, and feelings which percolate in his creative mind, drawing upon nature and imaginative inspirations as well as fascination by the works of Winslow Homer, Franz Marc, Claude Lorrain, Georgia O’Keefe, and master watercolor artist John Ebner, David’s uncle.

Just as he has for many film directors, Ebner often reaches within for new possibilities and exploration to delight people, often the case with groundbreaking visuals that have never been seen before.

You can see Ebner’s work in various galleries and art festivals. More information on the website.

About the Paintings:

Ebner creates Fine Art using watercolor, oil, pastel and acrylic paint over wood, paper, canvas and ceramic substrates. He works in the medium which best reflects the emotion of each piece, often times exploring unique mark making to further express a feeling.

The paints and substrate preparation are of the finest quality to ensure richness of colors and longevity.

Ebner also creates large mosaics on kiln fired ceramic tiles which he fully produces in-house.

Limited Edition prints are Museum Grade Giclees, which will last two hundred to four hundred years if cared for properly.

Hi, I’m Diane.  I am a long time Coastsider who creates functional and decorative pottery and mosaics for the home and garden.

My handmade ceramics are food and dishwasher safe and most are oven safe. I create mosaics primarily with repurposed and handmade ceramic materials.  Pottery and mosaics are grounded in nature and allow me to feel, visualize and bring in the colors, textures and movement of our coastal shore, agriculture and mountains. Treasure hunting for colorful, unique and primarily used and broken materials inspires my creative flow that comes with making mosaics and knowing these treasures will find new life by giving people joy.

Whether working in the Half Moon Bay studio I shared with my father-in-law or in our Santa Cruz Mountains studio, my mind flows with cherished memories of Half Moon Bay, my mother and Papa Joe, a Half Moon Bay Native who graced the Coastside with his stories, stained glass, craftsmanship, kindness, and generosity. Honoring him and our family’s love of the Coastside through art is pure joy. My love of nature and the environment inspires me to envision ways to rescue and repurpose things that would otherwise end up discarded.   My prior 42-year career included teaching Agriculture, Landscape Gardening, Design and Construction, Forestry, and Park Ranger and administrating Career Technical Education programs.

I am thankful for the richness of our local community and the support of the Coastside Artists, the Ocean Blue Art Vault, my mentors and patrons.  In addition to the Vault, I’ve had the pleasure of showing my art at the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival Made on the Coast, the Gathering of Women Artists, Mirada Art, and at various art shows throughout San Mateo County.

Twelve years ago we moved to Half Moon Bay. I love this beautiful place where green fields end at the bluffs above the Pacific Ocean. We made our home in an old train station. One day Coastside Land Trust brought a herd of goats and sheep to graze the coastal meadows. I owe those animals a debt of gratitude; their connection to the land, sea and air shifted something in me. After years of putting my creativity last, I moved it to the front of my to-do list. I draw, paint and weave. I find inspiration and incorporate elements of the natural world into the things I make. I often work in collaboration with my husband Steve, and we find delight in the creatures and elements in our garden and beyond.

I originally trained in Costume Design, and my first career was in the apparel trades. I am drawn to textures and subtle mixes of color. As a middle-aged adult, I switched gears toward Marriage and Family Therapy with an emphasis on the Expressive Arts, which included an emersion in meditative art. During the pandemic, the time of isolation created an opportunity to explore and return to art-making in a meaningful way. Creating has become a daily practice.

I started learning painting since middle school, The first painting I had ever painted was at the age of 16.

I enjoy painting realism, impressionism, landscapes, flowers and animals. all my paintings are high quality and 100% handmade oil paintings on canvas.

Greta has lived an adventure filled life as a model, professional merchandiser, florist, realtor, and painter

After Graduating NYU, Greta got her Masters degree at Fordham Business School. From there she moved into the exciting career of modeling, traveling far and wide for shoots in and out of the country. After her modeling career winded down, she still invlolved herself in extensive travel by becoming a professional merchandiser for a variety of clothing companies including Berkley Shirts and Bugle Boy Jeans. After settling down from her travels, Greta’s creative roots could not be stymied and she opened a flower and home goods shop. Eventually, pining for the ambiance of the west coast, Greta made the move to Half Moon Bay California where she is a licensed realtor.

Throughout this whole time, Greta has never stopped painting. She has exhibited in various shows domestically (including New York, San Francisco, and Florida) as well as internationally (including Tokyo and Monte Carlo). Just as her life has gone through many different stages, her painting style has evolved and changed over the years with each new phase of her life.

Greta is also an avid tennis player, happily married, and has 2 sons, one living in Washington DC and the other in Tokyo, Japan.

As an artist captivated by the endless beauty of the ocean. I find inspiration in the rhythmic dance of waves, the vibrant colors of underwater life, and the boundless expanse of the sea. Without any formal training or art education, I have cultivated a deep love for translating the wonders of the ocean onto canvas, as I interpret them. Creating art is self-care for me and allows me to nurture my mind and soul.

When I am not painting you can find me spending time with my family, or volunteering with animals (something I am VERY passionate about).

I am so honored to be included in the Ocean Blue Vault Collective with so many talented artists and I hope you enjoy your visit to the gallery.

XO,
Heather Prince

Owner and Artist Fierce Siren Studios

An avid beachcomber and self-proclaimed history geek, I am an artist who incorporates local beach-found treasures into my work while researching, writing, and educating about them. Always drawing as a child, I won a competition to create my high school logo, studied art and architectural history at the University of London as a teen, then graduated with Honors from San Jose State University with a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design. Life kept me away from creating for decades, until the sea rekindled my spark. I founded Fierce Siren Studios in 2021 and think of myself as an artist whose inspiration is the waste of the past.

Shows and Exhibits 

Women’s View 2024, 2025 Juried Group Exhibit for Women’s History Month, San Mateo County Office of Arts and Culture

Coastal Arts League, Exhibiting artist in juried shows 2023-2025

Ocean Blue Vault, Exhibiting artist 2023-2025

Art Guild of Pacifica, Exhibiting artist 2024-2025

Los Altos Library Juried Public Art Exhibit, 2023, 2025

Burlingame Library Juried Public Art Exhibit 2025

City of Sunnyvale Juried Solo Public Art Exhibit April–May 2024

Redwood City Juried Solo Public Art Exhibit Summer 2023

Mohr Gallery Juried Exhibit, Menlo Park March-April 2023

Festivals and Speaking Engagements 

Santa Barbara Sea Glass and Ocean Arts Festival – Vendor (juried) and Speaker 2023-2025

Santa Cruz Sea Glass and Ocean Arts Festival – Vendor (juried) 2022–2024 and Speaker 2023-2024

San Francisco Gem and Mineral Society, Speaker “The Colorful World of Sea Glass” February 2025

Silicon Valley Open Studios, Sanchez Center 2024, 2025

Winter Art Faire 2023-2024, Art Guild of Pacifica, Sanchez Art Center

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival, Vendor (juried) 2022-2024

Sunnyvale Art and Wine Festival, Vendor (juried) 2023 (not held in 2024

South Coast Artist Alliance member show 2023-2025

Pescadero Art and Fun Festival, juried Vendor 2023-2024

Half Moon Bay History Association, Speaker “The History of Miramar” August 2023

Published Articles and Art 

Author of eight articles on local history and glass for the Half Moon Bay History Association, including the most-clicked on item on their web site, “Half Moon Bay History Reveled Through Glass”                      HMB History Through Glass – Half Moon Bay History Association

“Three Masts and a Ghost” Short story, Beachcombing Magazine, volume 38 September-October 2023

“Spirit of the Sea” Painting, Beachcombing Magazine, volume 38 September – October 2023

Affiliations 

Coastal Arts League 

Colony of Coastside Artists (CoCA) 

South Coast Artists Alliance 

Art Guild of Pacifica 

Silicon Valley Open Studios

fiercesirenstudios@gmail.com

I was born in Santiago, Chile. My parents immigrated to the US when I was 11 years old. I have lived in many places in California, but the coast is what I love the most.

I am a mother, a grandmother and a retired teacher. Art has always been part of my life. I enjoyed introducing my students to many forms of Art while I was teaching. I learned a lot from their free self expression.

A few years ago I decided to go to the Mendocino Art Center where I was reintroduced to my love for Abstract painting. I still hear the words from the instructor, “Just paint!”. That’s all I needed to hear.

I call my Art ” Organic Abstract Painting” because the inspiration comes from within. It feels good to paint and see what the colors and brush strokes magically create on the canvas.

I’m Ekaterina (Katrin) Kalistru, an artist and teacher with a passion for creativity. With years of experience teaching and making art, I’ve explored many techniques and mediums, but watercolor and graphics hold a special place in my heart.

Nature inspires me, and I love capturing its beauty through landscapes, animals, and still-life compositions.

After moving to America with my family three years ago, I’ve been rediscovering my artistic voice and excited to connect with fellow arto lovers.

You can find me on Instagram @katrin_kalistru

My website katrinkalistru.com

I’m excited to be part of this season’s show at The Vault in Half Moon Bay! I’m happy for this opportunity to share my painted furniture with the community.

My furniture originates mostly as found, second-hand pieces that need new life. I love to see an old table or chair reborn with new color and a fresh purpose. My passion is to experiment with vibrant colors and unique shapes so that my furniture can inspire happiness in a new home. For me, it’s all about the shape of the “canvas.” I love to find discarded furniture and other objects with interesting curves and lines that come to life with vibrant violet, cobalt, tangerine, or magenta. Recently, I have started adding beads to some of my pieces because who doesn’t like playing with beads! My recent favorites include a telephone table, plant stand, shelves, and dollhouse furniture. 

I was lucky to end up on the northern California coast in the 1990s. My children grew up in Half Moon Bay, and through my talented artistic daughter, Genevieve, I started exploring the inner artist in myself. When Genni was 5 and started after-school art classes at Fly on The Wall Art School, the studio’s owner, Susan Carkeek, became her teacher and my mentor. My daughter is now an art student at the California College of Art in San Francisco, and I aspire to be half as good as she is. Susan continues to mentor and inspire me, and I feel privileged to live in a community that supports and nurtures the arts. 

Kim Zaidain

https://www.instagram.com/zaidainfurniturestudio/

Larry Salveson is a Software Developer in the San Mateo, CA area. He has enjoyed a lifelong passion for photography, which has evolved to include creating digital paintings. Larry’s images span a broad range of interests including people, abstracts, nature, and landscapes. 

Custom sizes are available for most images. Contact me directly for signed prints that I make myself. Other prints can be ordered from my website. 

Larry Salveson 

Larry@LarrySalveson.com 

LarrySalveson.com

Marie Susa Photography

For the past 40 years my passion has been nature, wildlife, and long

exposure photography. I see this amazing world through edges of my

viewfinder. Looking through my lens is my calm, passion, awareness, and

joy. Photography enables me to stop, listen, and capture a unique moment

in time. Natural light and its luminescence on the landscape is constantly

changing, second by second. Natural light allows me to create a mood in

the between the boundaries of my viewfinder. My images capture the

elusive qualities of light and time in nature. Using long exposure allows me

to capture motion and the effect light has on motion in a way the eye cannot

see.

My creative vision is to share nature as it truly exists. I do not digitally

manipulate the image to something that is not an accurate representation of

the original image. All my wildlife images are taken in the wild and not in

captivity.

It is my pleasure to share these unique moments with you.

I have lived in Half Moon Bay, California for the past 32 years where I am

surrounded by the boundless beauty of the coast and rural farmland.

Art is an expression of soul.  It is a blend of real and fantasy, the subject matter depicts places, people, objects and events from life.

Marilyn’s early art: sketches, paintings, and prints and her more recent art expression through fabric and glass are glimpses of life events and are driven by a need to express self.  Current glass , as seen in The Vault is a dynamic medium of light interacting with the art object.  It serves to enhance and move focus bringing a life to the art itself.

Marilyn has worked for the art department of Mira Costa Junior College and the Art and Lectures Department at University of California, Santa Cruz on work study grants.  She has been a member of art communities in Venice Beach CA, Santa Cruz CA , the Inland Valley, Riverside area, and in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Marilyn is a member of the Sanchez art community, Cradle of the Sun stain glass studio, and a community arts program at the Pacifica Senior Center.  She is a resident of Pacifica CA. and works as an Occupational Therapist at an acute hospital setting.

Awards:

Window Scape artist, Riverside CA

Artist Recognition, Sanchez Arts, Member Show

Shows:

Mountain Ranch Resource Center, CA

Cabrillo College, Santa Cruz, CA

Mira Costa Junior College, Oceanside, CA

Art Displays:

Ocean Yoga, Pacifica CA.

Michael Endicott is a Bay Area Fine Art photographer. His artistic perspective is an outgrowth of his experience at the intersection of the political and biological sciences and photographed at boundaries of the urban and natural world. His cellular tapestries have built in intersections and spaces meant to encourage active meditations on our place in community. His process is sculptural in nature, bending wavelengths of light and molding multiple photos, pulling him away from realism into the realm of expressionist and abstract painting. He collaborates regularly with painters and mixed media artists – paintography, photosculpture and fusion. Recently, he has been exhibited in the DeYoung Museum, (San Francisco, Ca 2020, 2023), Triton Museum of Art (Santa Clara, CA 2024), Gallery House (Menlo Park, Ca)  and UCSF Medical Center, Mt. Zion (San Francisco, Ca).

Patt Sheldon is local—born in San Francisco and raised on the Peninsula. She taught mostly middle school English and Health Education in Belmont for 35 years, and never considered herself artistic, though her flair for color always showed.

Patt became a knitter, then a weaver after moving “over the hill” in 1999. Experiencing two summers of heavy coastal fog, she realized she needed indoor sports to combat the fog. She took a few weaving classes and many knitting technique workshops, learned ice dyeing one afternoon, and is self-taught in jewelry design. She creates unusual pieces and prefers being ahead of the crowd rather than part of it. Her works are one of a kind.

Patt’s love of color led her to Czech glass beads and the Czech Republic’s centuries-old family-run factories. She has visited three times and brought back many treasures to share in her work. Her excuse in returning is to combat losing these companies to cheaper made Chinese beads that have infiltrated the market.

She also uses different types of gemstones, especially for pieces for sale at the Vault.

Ice dyeing natural fibers became a passion, preferring its soft patterns to deliberate designs. She dyes clothing and large array of home goods, as well as fabric. The most exciting part of her ice dyeing has been collaborating with a former 6th grade student, now a fashion designer in Los Angeles.

Realizing how isolated artists can be, particularly after retiring from teaching and working at home, Patt started a group called Colony of Coastside Artists in Feb, 2010. The group is open to any level artist living on the coast interested in socializing, art discussions, and group projects, and is currently over 120 members strong. Prior to 2020, CoCA met monthly, and has resumed annually sponsoring Open Studios in November, which is available to all coastside artists.

Besides selling through CoCA’s Open Studios, her diverse work sells in stores, and several in-person shows, mostly on the coast. Her website www.pattsheldon.com highlights her vivid colors and textures. Patt also sells through Harvard Market, Make It Main Street, and Etsy and GoImagine online under the name Patt711.

She is very excited to return to The Vault’s collective art group.

Robyn Drake grew up on an Iowa farm amid cattle, horses, and expansive landscapes. Robyn moved to Chicago after attending Drake University.  In 2013, she moved to California, and currently resides in Half Moon Bay.

Using oils, oil pastels, charcoal, and more recently, acrylics, she explores the interplay of awe and endurance, vulnerability and resilience, through representational subjects.

Robyn’s work has been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions primarily in Chicago and California. Her evolving horse series marked a significant return to her roots on the ranch in Iowa. Robyn’s drawings and paintings are in private collections in the USA, Europe, and Asia, and have won awards in juried competitions.

Drake was awarded scholarships and earned degrees in studio art and art history at Drake University, with further development through post-graduate classes at the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. 

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Inspired by the interplay of vulnerability, strength, and power, my art employs representational imagery to navigate themes of agency through contemporary expressionism.  I engage with and question the complexities of our current existential predicament while acknowledging and elevating primal facets of ourselves in a social landscape which grows increasingly illusionistic.

Through the equine and animal subjects, I delve into resilience and fragility, using an anthropomorphic perspective as a chronicle of unfiltered emotional landscapes in my life. The horses never wear any tack or offer narrative cues to assign historical era, or culture which would distract from the purity of the emotional statement.  In contrast, my human figures are often dreamy and introspective, others are blatantly symbolic in dreamlike environments, both less outwardly emotive than the animals, and contain visual clues to culture, era, and social strata.

The seascapes switch the narrative to engage the viewer with uncontrollable external powers.  With the drama of the waves, both beautiful and dangerous, there is a reminder of powerlessness and resilience in the face of larger forces, which also serve as metaphors of sociopolitical forces overwhelming personal agency through social constructs.

My selection of charcoal, acrylics, and oils pays tribute to the craft legacy of traditional painting and dedication to hone my skill as a painter.  The choice of media becomes a crucial element of my practice.

Currently I’m preparing for upcoming group and solo exhibitions and new gallery representation.  I’m investigating the use of AI as a tool for creating complex compositions as an addition to working from life and manipulated photographs.  A personal symbolic language is emerging as my subjects grow.  I will always return to commissioned horse paintings and portraits as a grounding device for my work.

I have been teaching Art for over 25 years. I love co-creating. I trained at the SF Art Institute and in the field with many community arts projects. I grew up in a family, where creativity was encouraged by my mother as a visual artist and my father, as an expert carpenter. As a child I was free to work in his garage drilling, hammering, and grinding. I worked for SFUSD setting art programs citywide as well training teachers. I previously worked in fashion and in the entertainment business, doing costume and set design. In my personal artwork, I’m interested in nature, magnification and experimenting in a variety of mediums. I have a studio at Sanchez Art Center and I’m a member of the Art guild of Pacifica. My Instagram is @sharoncollinsstudio

Through many decades I have longed to find my own personal style. I discovered the freeing and challenging medium of Alcohol Inks several years ago. Alcohol Inks are a vibrant, fluid medium that I yearn to contain to create my inner vision.

Placing the ink on the porcelain tile always leads to new discoveries of what is possible. Oscillating between letting the ink and coastal humidity control the outcome of its path, or controlling the placement of each fine detail.California’s stunning flora and fauna are my inspiration and place of solitude. They flow into life through the interaction of coastal landscapes, churning seas, unique plants and animals, and sweet ocean air.

I live in Coastal San Mateo County and my work has long reflected the landscape and figures of these surroundings. However, as my understanding of my own artistic expression matures, I find myself attracted to the rural landscape in general. The landscape I see and paint, here on the San Mateo Coast and throughout California and the US, often reflects a way of life, a sublime feeling that can’t be articulated in words or a different perspective that may not immediately meet the eye. Most recently, I’ve come to appreciate the art of representing these images and ideas in a more minimal style … major shapes, forms, and contrasting values … while trying to replicate the natural color palette of the surroundings.  

I am largely self-taught but I continue to study with many excellent faculty members at the local community colleges. I am also involved in a diverse community of fellow artists and am continually inspired by them. In my late teens and early 20’s, my stepfather, an architect engineer and lover of modern art, provided me with my first experiences with various forms of art and its ability to draw people to it. 

My aim is to create images that are recognizable and available to a broad range of people. In all cases, I choose to paint a subject because there is something about it that has moved me in a visceral way. I write poetry as well, and that poetic aesthetic translates into the feelings that make me want to paint something. I work both from photography and real life. The ability to use the camera on my mobile device to capture something I see or more likely “feel” out of the corner of my eye is a very powerful tool. 

It brings me pleasure to share these images and feelings in some small way.