Artist Statement

I strive to express what I am seeing with an honesty to nature and an emotional response to the subject. .......

I guess this is why I love the impressionists, they were such students of nature and with a few brilliant strokes they said so much with so little. It is so challenging to try and capture the beauty that God has surrounded us with. This challenge seems impossible and keeps me striving to make these simple tools say what my heart wants to say. Creating art gives so much joy. It makes us view our surroundings with great consciousness and the more our lives are lived with great consciousness the richer our art , our life and our surroundings become.

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I love these quotes:

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." Hans Hoffman.  

“If you will stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

​"Color is my day long obsession, joy, and torment." Claude Monet

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Artistic Training

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Sara Beth has been painting since 2003.  Her background in the sciences, with a Ph.D. in optics, along with her love for the study of nature allows her to have a technical as well as artistic understanding of light and color. She has taught classes around the country and in Europe and has exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the Southeast. She has participated in many plein air events including the Forgotten Coast Plein Air Invitational and Art in the Open, Ireland.

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Her artistic training has come from independent studies of the masters, plein air painting, along with tutelage from contemporary masters. She spent three years studying with Murat Kaboulov, a Russian impressionist, along with several students of the great Russian artist Sergei Bongart. Her style reflects her love for the Russian impressionists use of color and large brushwork. She has also studied most recently with Ned Mueller and Huihan Liu extensively. She has taken numerous workshops in the past 20 years with outstanding contemporary masters including Guido Frick, Sherrie McGraw, Scott Christensen, Quang Ho, Dawn Whitelaw, Carolyn Anderson, C.W. Mundy, Bill Davidson, James Richards, Oliver Sin, Terry Muira, Robert Liberaci and Kevin Beilfuss,

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Encouragement for Others

"I believe since we are created in God's image we all are imparted with a gift and desire for creativity. It is hard with modern life and responsibilities to honor that gift. However, we must all try to recognize it and use it in whatever way we can albeit however small. To feel complete as a child of God, we must exercise our gifts of creativity along with spiritual, physical and mental."

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Like many people, her art career has taken many turns while raising a family (with her supportive husband) to juggling a career full time outside the arts. "Before 2010, I was able to paint full time but did not understand anything about business." For the past twelve years (2011-July, 2023), Sara Beth has had a full time professional career outside the arts but "kept one leg in the arts." "While working, I have always had a workshop lined up as a vacation and when zoom classes became a thing I have enrolled in them as well. On Sunday afternoons, I  watched art videos and have taught classes locally, nationally and internationally along the way. I have done anything and everything I could to stay on top of my studies in art as I just do not feel complete without it."

"I began to see that art and creativity helped my work and work helped me learn business that could be applied to art! I learned so much that I never knew when I had the opportunity to paint full time. I am now retired from my "other" job and am blessed to say I am a full time artist! The moral for me was to have the right attitude, try to always be doing something creative no matter how small or in what form and most importantly enjoy the journey as all things can inform each other."