Meet the Artists
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.
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.
I am a painter and composer whose work grows from the meeting point of image, sound, memory, and place. Born in Japan and raised in the United States, I create between cultures, where quiet landscapes, personal history, and emotional resonance come together. My return to painting began during a visit to Amsterdam, when I joined a workshop at the Van Gogh Museum. That experience reawakened a creative voice that had long been dormant. After many years in robotics and entrepreneurship, I came back to art with a renewed sense of purpose. In many ways, my work reflects both sides of my life: engineering precision balanced with intuitive gesture, structure softened by atmosphere and feeling. I now work primarily in ink and watercolor, drawn to their transparency, fluidity, and subtle power. Delicate pen line work is central to my recent paintings, especially in architectural and structural subjects, where fine lines convey both clarity and intimacy. Whether I paint landscapes, still life, portraiture, or more surreal and abstract imagery, I approach each piece as a form of storytelling. My work has appeared in juried exhibitions at the Coastal Arts League, including A Moment in Time, Anything Goes, In the Garden, Imagine This!, and A Sense of Place, with Honorable Mention awards in 2025, and is currently featured in Sign of Spring (2026).
I also exhibited three works at the 2025 Love Kobe Art Fair in Japan, and continue to show my work at Gallery House (Menlo Park), Ocean Blue Vault (Half Moon Bay), and other venues throughout the Bay Area. Through Eimei’s World, I seek to unite painting, poetry, and music—inviting viewers into a multisensory experience where light, rhythm, and memory can be felt as one.
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.
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
I combine vibrant colors of glass sheet, frit, rods, stringers and powder in a kiln to produce unique and functional pieces of art, sometimes enhancing the piece with silver foil and other metals. I also integrate fused glass, anodized aluminum rings, gemstone beads and other components into eye-catching, unusual jewelry pieces.
My journey as an artist started in childhood when I received my first set of Crayola crayons and created unauthorized masterpieces on my bedroom walls. I thought it would be fun to be a cartoonist when I grew up until I learned in chemistry lab how to make liquids in beakers dramatically change colors. And lots of other interesting and more practical things. So, I abandoned the cartoons and got an engineering degree from Cornell.
After many years of success as an engineer, product manager and currently as a software developer, the opportunity to reconnect with my artistic side presented itself when a dear friend hosted a jewelry making class and I was hooked. My vacations were then spent traveling to glass and jewelry shows, taking a variety of classes.
I have lived in El Granada, CA for over 20 years and am inspired by all the colors and beauty that surrounds me; the luminous, fiery sunsets on the coast with the rare green flash just as the sun sinks below the horizon, the vivid colors of the flowers on my daily walks, the ocean’s many shades of blue.
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
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
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.
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
hello! I am a painter and illustrator working primarily in oils. In my art, I am often thinking about family and relationships and loved ones and how they impact us day to day. I am inspired by memories and moments and the bay area’s landscapes and liveliness of people. I think that at its core, my work is about celebrating connection, presence, intimacy and play. If my art has made you smile today, I am happy.
I am a multi-disciplinary artist and have had a varied creative career and am very grateful to be focusing on painting today. I’m very lucky to be able to show my paintings at various places around the bay. For more information about upcoming shows, visit my website.
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.