I am a Wildlife and Nature Photographer

I had always been drawn to the art of photography , but for a variety of reasons, I never picked up a camera until late in life. I was 64 years old when I started it, and since then I have not put the camera down.
I am attracted to all genres of the photography, but Wildlife and Nature are mostly what I am drawn to which takes me to a whole range of photographic opportunities. From Micro photography, to Landscape and Nightscape, and to the far reaches of the Earth, I love doing them all.
Photographing the Landscape and the Cosmos at night, or waiting to see a Wildlife animal, has its own many challenges, but also its huge rewards both in the form of the actual image, but perhaps more importantly, the serenity and the calm it brings with it when I am photographing .. The long hours of the night, feels more like mere second to me , and before I know it, it all ends.
I feel a deep sense of urgency to capture the world around me, or to travel to the places I have always wanted to see, not just because I am getting up in age, but also that the world as we know it is changing so rapidly due to Climate Change and I fear what we see today in our world, will not be around much longer.

I started painting when I was getting my degree from Instituto Nacional de Bella’s Artes Mexico in 1994 in Fine Arts. I have continued my studies under the tutelage of Chester Arnold a well known Bay Area artist.

My work contains iconography from my indigenous Oaxaca culture, it’s vibrant colors and patterns. It also shows my beliefs in the regenerative power of women as seen in the depiction of flowers, plants, and trees springing up from the life force, painted in surrealistic Style.

I’m trying to express and share my passion for my culture which is life affirming and for the natural ability for women and nature to procreate.

Sausalito Artist Claudia Cohen has been creating since early years.

After studies at the Corcoran School of Art and George Washington University, in Washington, DC she obtained her Bachelor’s of art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in conjunction with Tufts University.

At the time and for many years her focus was in sculpture. Now it’s figurative and narrative painting, with the help of studies with COM’s acclaimed teacher, Chester Arnold.

Her creations are multilayered and reflect her life and inspirations. Renaissance portraiture also underpins her work. Claudia takes her audience on a narrative journey filled with interpretative reflections and fantasies.

Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the US and internationally. She has received numerous grants and awards, including the George Sugarman Foundation, and several Marin Arts Council Grants. Her painting “Nevermore” was part of the 2024 DeYoung Museum Open.

Like Beauty, truth lies in the eye of the beholder – and in the mind of the artist. The bronze and ceramic creations of sculptor and painter, Claudia Cohen are not realistic in any strict sense of the term, but they are precise renditions of her imagination; engaging articulations of the ruminations of her subconscious. With her dazzling style of meticulous detail and feeling for form, the work brings to life a magical cast of characters – human, animal, and are a fantastical progeny from a different and inviting universe.

In the book Humor in Art, Nickolas Roulks described the work as Comic Surrealism which aptly sums up the artist’s feel for humor and pathos. Magic Realism is another term often used to characterize her narrative creations. There are few artists today who inhabit such an intriguing unified private world and have such an immediate gift in of inviting everyone else into it…

I was once asked: “In one or two words, what means the most to you in life?” The answer, and the realization, came to me in an instant:
Creative Opportunity!
My artistic expression, often three-dimensional, is an effort to create beauty and simplicity in functional objects. Over a lifetime I’ve worked with many media. I learned knitting and sewing at my mother’s knee, sewing clothes, knitting sweaters and sox, working on a variety of embroidery projects. These led me to my interest in ornamentation and artwear.

My grandmother introduced me to travel — across the country by train at 12 years old, two months in Europe plus North Africa when I was 18 years old, as well as many solo and group trips beyond.

A recent Creative Opportunity was presented by decades-long collections of yarns, fabrics, ethnic beads, shells and treasured tchotchkes. That work combined them into jewelry using techniques from textile arts, beading and metal smithing.

Now I’ve returned to my sewing background – creating improv pieced quilting studies as small wall art.

As I look back I see how influenced I’ve been by family, including my father’s engineering! Yes, figuring out how to carry out my creative visions often takes a bit of engineering!

Bill Russell exhibits a generous affection for the natural world and places the birds and flowers of his attention in composed scatterings, often on a flat field for scrutiny like a charming abbreviated guidebook. His large-scale paintings of magnificent slot canyons in Utah portray dark and vigorous brush outlines of major forms that appear supernatural in hue, but actually radiate their true pigments of earth. His climate change paintings depict a dramatic fire and ice landscape, inspired by the artist’s trip to Iceland and his fascination with the place and its obvious signs of global warming. Several works depict icebergs that have broken away from the melting polar icecap, becoming vivid novel forms as they slowly thaw. Strange characters also appear in the paintings – in kayaks, on a Nordic sailing ship, or as bathing-capped swimmers treading the inhospitable waters – and these add an ironic twist to worlds of ancient beauty alongside the harsh awareness of humankind’s impact.

I am a Bay Area-based artist, working primarily in painting and printmaking. My work has been strongly influenced by the Bay Area Figurative School, with its combination of figurative painting elements and abstract paint handling techniques. I have a gestural, expressionistic style, and am passionate about color. My earlier works focused on figures and narrative content, more recently I have been increasingly drawn to landscape-based abstraction.

Often when I paint I will use reference material, still life, landscape, drawings, or photographs. In these works photographs of nature, often featuring images of gardens and water, serve as inspiration for gestural works evoking my impressions and responses to the scene, and to the marks emerging on the canvas. Working on large canvases is comfortable for me. I enjoy painting with my whole arm, my entire body, rather than just hand or wrist.

Finding points of reference, the ripples in a pond, the roughness of bark, the simple geometry of a bench, I alternate between looking and making specific references to my source material, and a dialogue that emerges within the structure of the painting itself. How one shape, color, or line relates to another. This conversation continues until there seems to be a balance, a point where the painting is saying something. At times I intentionally leave these works very loose, retaining a lot of open areas, areas for the eye and mind to wander.

In addition to my painting practice, I have become a bit obsessed with printmaking! My recent monotype series are often inspired by nature, the flora and fauna which surround us, as well as my love of color. I have employed a variety of techniques to obtain my desired results, often using stencils of animals, flowers, or birds that I draw, then cut with an X-Acto knife or nail scissors, to use as a template. These produce a fascinating effect to be achieved as the ink below the stencil is revealed, and the stencils themselves build up interesting layers of color. I enjoy combining these with other, found materials. Sometimes I use leaves as a type of stencil, intrigued by the minute level of detail of veining that is revealed in the process. Departing somewhat from the natural world, more abstract compositions are formal explorations of the evocative potential of found objects. Printmaking is such an engrossing medium because of the element of surprise, every time I pull a print revealing the image is such an exciting moment, much like opening a present.

Enthralled by nature and the beauty of our surroundings my creative expression began with a journey into macro and abstract photography. I am drawn to essences. The expression is a fluidity.

Over time and turning inward I found a resonance with the tactile medium of encaustic painting (beeswax and damar resin). This ancient (first use over 2000 years ago) fluid layering medium mirrors being in flow, as in water. As such, it is infinitely malleable revealing texture, shape and depth.

Each encaustic piece consists of multiple layers of painting with pigmented wax. The process is to melt the wax on a palette, paint, fuse with heat and repeat the steps, in this way the shapes and textures arise. As a heated and flowing medium I am guided by the colors and the process itself.

As a springboard into curiosity, each piece offers a pause to savor the beauty that surrounds us. I hope you find nourishment.

Each day as I step into my studio, I am entering a playground – a workout for taking risks, letting go of attachments, and experimenting with new ideas. The materials are guiding me. A letter to the tooth fairy, a One Way road sign, or a billboard scrap foraged in San Francisco all make their way into the work and are a reflection of my interior life. My spirit laughs out loud at the freedom of breaking the rules and drawing outside of the lines. I’m not sure who is in charge – my art or me. The process is alchemical, magical, and joyful. The maverick/rebel is encouraged while the perfectionist is given a time-out. The result is a pure reflection of my heart. In 2021, my work was chosen for the DeYoung Open at the DeYoung Museum. It is available through my studio, Sloan Miyasato Fine Art, through Slate Contemporary in Oakland and through the Portland Art Gallery in Portland, Maine.

I am a ceramic sculptor who creates unique handcrafted pieces. My sculpture is unique, at times fun, and always thought-provoking; a way of expressing my views both politically and aesthetically.

My work spans from whimsical anthropomorphic animals, political / media genres, sensual hearts , beastie planter heads , life size bikinis to landscape paintings on sculptural forms.

All my work is all hand built with coils or slabs. I use a lot of sprigging in the English Wedgwood tradition and I make my own texture molds to embellish my work. My pieces are low fired, glazed and multi fired in an electric kiln. I make statements to make people stop and think or laugh and smile.

My family, an upbringing in Asia, science, and the world around me have a profound effect on my choice of subject matter. I like to work in series. I will often be working on different series at the same time.

In the landscape series I am inspired by the Mediterranean and North American landscapes, the sculptural forms that I have developed over a decade have become my canvases for using a watercolor technique where I draw and paint the visions I have into the topographical forms of the sculptures. Because I am concerned about the environment and the impact of humankind throughout the world, I feel compelled to record these snapshot vignettes of our beautiful landscapes before they are ruined or disappear altogether.

As a bee keeper and avid gardener bees and plants often find their way into my work.

I love making functional plates, platters and bowls to enhance the food I love to make for my friends. I make unusual vases for the flowers we grow for the bees.

I paint to translate the world as I perceive it—through color, texture, and emotion. As a neurodivergent artist, abstraction is my language, a way to communicate the unseen rhythms and quiet intensities that shape my experience. My work is intuitive and immersive, driven by an obsession with color and a desire to evoke wonder, contemplation, and healing. Each piece is an exploration—of depth, movement, and the tension between structure and spontaneity. My paintings are not meant to be explained but felt, inviting viewers to connect with their own inner landscapes.

Art is my “never never land”. A place to go to be with the sound of my brush on the canvas, the smell of the paint and a happy thought. Ahhhhh