Meet the Artists
My Passion for Professional Still Imagery & Fine Art:
As a Freshman in high school Aaron was filling up two to three rolls of 35mm films per-week. The Riekes Center (a non-profit organization in Menlo Park, geared to helping people achieve their goals) made it possible for Aaron to perfect his numbers & exposures which spurred his true passion for the fine arts.
While finishing High School in 2007, Aaron was already active in the business of photography and would soon become a professional in the field. In 2012 Aaron taught his first Digital Darkroom Photography class to underprivileged High School students in the Bay Area.
After graduating from the Art Institute of California in 2015, Aaron witnessed first hand how most students attending underprivileged schools needed more resources and mentors who were passionate about the field of Fine Arts. So, Aaron took on the task to build new innovative ways to best serve the community through the arts by extending digital photography classes to these students.
In 2015 to 2020 Aaron became the Visual Arts Director at the Riekes Center. In this role, Aaron was able to provide new photography equipment to students, and develop a curriculum for photography techniques and digital data organization.
In addition to Aaron’s role as a Visual Arts/Communication Arts & Financial Aid Director, Aaron worked as a professional Freelance Photographer in the Bay Area with a tremendous amount of work, which led to meeting key community stakeholders within the Silicon Valley.
Aaron’s Photography has been the contributing photographer for the Atherton Living, Los Altos Hills and Mountain Home private magazines since June 2021 and current.
Aaron has now successfully shown his first Art Gallery showing in 2022 at Mirada Art Gallery on Main Street, Half Moon Bay.
During the months of September through December, Aaron will be showcasing a series of Ancient tree series (4,850 year old pine trees) at Ocean Blue the Vault Art Gallery on Main Street, Half Moon Bay.
– Aaron believes that these ancient trees have genetic information that can help us understand our climates within the planet. These series of photographs will hold history, resistance, adaptation and growth.
Aaron Alvarez Mendoza
Aaron’s Photography
I work with oil paints both on location and in the studio. Direct observation from life is my preferred method because natural light heightens our perception of color and space. Yet the studio is my laboratory, where I slow down, plan and experiment. These approaches feed one another.
I use painting to explore our perception of natural light because painting can do what the camera cannot. There’s nothing like seeing color outdoors, in all kinds of weather, night or day. Oil paint literally holds light. It’s luminous!
I rely on plein air paintings, drawings, my memory, notes, and photographs, to make work. Painting furthers both my story and yours as a viewer because it’s a passport to our shared human experiences.
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.
I am both a composer and a painter, drawing inspiration from the world of visual art and sound. I believe in the power of combining painting and music to express deeper, more unified stories.
My journey with painting was rekindled during a pre-pandemic visit to Amsterdam, where I participated in a workshop at the Van Gogh Museum. Since then, I’ve been creating actively through the California Bijutsu Club in San Jose for over five years.
I primarily work in acrylic on canvas, often using palette knives to capture texture and emotion. Recently, I’ve been exploring ink and watercolor, drawn to their fluidity and translucency. Color plays a central role in my work, shaping each piece’s atmosphere and rhythm.
My subject matter spans landscapes, still life, portraiture, Surrealism, and abstraction. While varied, each genre reflects a different thread in the broader narrative I wish to convey. For me, genre is a storytelling tool—not a constraint.
My exhibitions include the California Bijutsu Club shows (2019, 2022, 2023), and several juried shows at the Coastal Arts League, including “A Moment in Time” (2024), “Anything Goes” (2024), “In the Garden” (2025), and the ongoing “Imagine This!” (Honorable Mention).
I often begin with a theme or object that stirs my imagination, then weave emotion and narrative into the work. Looking ahead, I aspire to compose music that pairs with my paintings—uniting image, rhythm, and resonance—to invite viewers on a journey that speaks to both the eyes and the heart.
I am Ekaterina Kalistru, a professional artist and teacher with a passion for creativity. With years of experience teaching and making art, I have explored many techniques and mediums, but watercolor and graphics hold a special place in my heart.
I see the world in watercolors – soft skies spreading like wet pigment on paper, trees as delicate brushstrokes, and city streets a blur of merging colors. I feel the world unfolding like a wet sheet of paper, colors spreading and merging in unexpected ways. My art is about capturing this fluid beauty, letting the colors bleed and blend on my canvas. It’s a constant dance between control and chance, as I try to catch the ephemeral nature of life in my paintings.
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 art lovers.
You can find me on Instagram @katrin_kalistru
My website katrinkalistru.com
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
Stained Glass Artist
I came to stained glass after a thirty-year career as an American diplomat, serving in eight foreign countries and retiring as the U.S. Ambassador to Estonia. The unusual hobby of building picture frames first led me to the satisfaction of breaking glass to my will. Later, after returning to California, a poster offering stained glass classes caught my attention. I’ve always believed that people and experiences come into your life when you’re ready. I was ready — and immediately taken with the artistry and craftsmanship required to create art from glass.
Living on the Coast is a constant source of inspiration and many of my pieces mix glass with driftwood. I consider my pieces more sculptures than windows and prefer to display them on stands rather than installation. Light is essential for glass to come alive. The colors, lead lines, and the mood itself change frequently through the day, adding unexpected elements of interest. The majority of my pieces start with the idea of an image that renders well in glass. The ideas are then refined through glass selection, color, texture, and design. In addition to the artistic element, technical considerations necessary for successful construction are equally critical, Mistakes are frequent but the Japanese philosophy of Wabi Sabi – beauty in imperfection – also influences my work.
I’ve had few experiences more satisfying than creating a piece that someone would like to have. In these economic times, buying art is rarely at the top of the priority list. I am honored beyond words by anyone drawn to my work whether it’s purchased or not. Touching them with beauty, even for a brief moment, is the reward I’m after. Life on the Coast is paradise, and I am proud to be among the artists and craftsmen trying to capture that.
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’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
Martha Diaz is a San Francisco–based artist whose work is inspired by the California coast and the natural world. From childhood, she dreamed of being an artist, but her path first led to a career in healthcare and raising a family. When her children grew older, she returned to her passion, studying with well-known artists through classes, workshops, and mentorships.
A significant part of her practice is plein air painting—creating directly on location. Whether along the cliffs and beaches of the coast or in nearby parks and trails, Martha finds inspiration in the immediacy of painting outdoors, where light and atmosphere change moment by moment. These experiences often serve as the foundation for her studio paintings, which expand on her plein air studies with expressive interpretations.
Martha’s paintings reflect both observation and emotion. Through color, light, and movement, she strives to capture more than a scene, inviting viewers into an intimate connection with nature that resonates on a deeply emotional level.
In addition to her painting practice, Martha teaches art classes that nurture creativity at all levels and welcomes commissions, collaborating with clients to create meaningful, one-of-a-kind works. Her art is both a celebration of nature and an invitation to connect more deeply with it.
Robin Brandt
Robin calls the metalsmith studio at the San Francisco Gem and Mineral Society (SFGMS) her Happy Place, where she can focus on being creative and working on her art medium: jewelry.
At the SFGMS studio she goes beyond making jewelry, she experiments with new metalsmith techniques, socializes with other artists and teaches others the foundations of silver jewelry making: sawing, forming, soldering, casting, setting,…
Although Robin’s love of gems and rocks started when she was a child (collecting pretty rocks she found by the side of the road and skipping class to go to rock and gem shows at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium) it wasn’t until 2016 when she learned how to turn those rocks into beautiful cabochons she sold to jewelers and collectors. Then in 2018 she took the first step toward creating her own jewelry line by joining the SFGMS where she learned the basics and started developing her technical skills and her voice as a jewelry artist.
Her work is gemstone centric, working with some of the most beautiful mineral cabochons she creates herself or sources from fellow lapidary artists from all over the world. Her style is eclectic, sometimes leaning BoHo Chic, sometimes goth, sometimes Victorian, but always focusing on the insanely beautiful natural gems and interesting textures and designs.
You can find Robin helping other jewelers at the silver studio of the SFGMS and you can check out her jewelry at The Ocean Blue Vault in Half Moon Bay and on her social media accounts (IG: Robintattoo, FB: Robins Rocks and Jewelry, and TikTok: robinbrandt7
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.
Susan Grabowski, originally from New Jersey, spent 22 years on Cape Cod before making her way to the San Francisco Bay Area. She captures the fleeting moments in her light-filled paintings in the California plein air/impressionist style.
“The light captivates us from the start, but look within the shadows for the full picture.
I’ve been making art since I was a young child, and after all this time, I can now identify that my inspiration is light: how it glows through a breaking ocean wave, or turns a simple piece of fruit on one of my plates into so many surprising colors. My subject does not need to be a shockingly beautiful place or thing. It can be a suburban street, or my kitchen counter in the early morning. I see the beauty in the everyday things we all see, and invite you to see it too.
I like to paint outdoors from life (en plein air) and about 50% of my paintings are done that way. I pack my gear and take it when I travel. Having a focus on depicting the places I visit gives added meaning, and mementos galore! Visit my website for more details on my long and varied career. My busy thoughts slow to a simple calm when I am painting and I hope that soothing serenity is communicated to you in this cacophonous world, so full of distractions and busy-ness.
I have a Studio at Art Bias in San Carlos, and welcome studio visits. Every first Sunday of the month, the facility holds Open Studios from 12-4pm. There are 50 artist studios, and at least half the artists participate in the Open Studios.“
Website: susangrabowski.com
Art That Makes a Difference
Each season, Ocean Blue Vault selects a deserving local non-profit to support through the sale of donated artwork.
This season we’re proud to support Boys & Girls Club of the Coastside.
The mission of the Boys & Girls Club of the Coastside is to enable ALL Coastside youth, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens.
BGCC envisions a Coastside where every young person is strong, engaged, valued, and able to reach their full potential. Because when our young people thrive, so do we all.
Our Mission
The Ocean Blue Vault supports our local creative community & endeavors to offer the premier location for artists to show and sell their art on the coast. The Vault is committed to diversity, not only with the wide range of art offered each quarter, but diversity in its selection of people – all artists will find a supportive, safe environment and will feel welcome. The Vault strives to pay the artists the highest split on the coast with 100% of the proceeds from the “non profit” wall going directly to that quarter’s local charity. We are about community first.
What is the Ocean Blue Vault?
Ocean Blue Real Estate founder David Oliphant introduces the Ocean Blue (Art) Vault, a local artists’ collective. David’s vision in creating this special space is to showcase local artists who celebrate the natural beauty found in Half Moon Bay.
Living Locally
In this Living Locally segment, meet photographer, Steve Maller; sculptor, Marie LaCour Studio; eclectic creative, Jennifer Roberts Almodova; and local artist, Sonya Kleshik who champions this unique collective “as bringing the community together because art acts as an instrument of connection.