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MARIN MAGAZINE 2026
Making Art Work: Four Women Artists on Turning Craft Into a Career
by Ashley Bess
We spoke with four women artists currently showing at Marin Open Studios to find out how they were able to make a living from their craft.
ART SEEN MAGAZINE: Issue 18
Winter 2025
Art Seen curated by Gita Joshi of The Curator's Salon, features contemporary artists. Available in print and digital, the issue highlights artists redefining visual culture through interviews and studio practice insights.
Artist Statement
"You're alive, be alive”. These are the words I have learned to live by through deep grief. Flowers radiate a vibrant, vital energy, even as they begin their quiet descent into decay. As I witness this unfolding cycle, my abstract floral paintings attempt to capture that fleeting brilliance, holding onto it before it is gone.
On the canvas, I translate this movement initially through fast, sweeping marks that reflect the vital life force within the flowers. I want my work to resist the static—to evoke the energy of a living thing rather than a passive image.
Nature reveals that birth, death, and regrowth are inseparable, each dependent on the other. Within grief, there is a strange comfort in this rhythm: what is lost is not gone, but transformed. I feel a continuous connection to those I have lost in the presence of nature, the flower in particular, recognizing that it’s temporary beauty is only one aspect of the whole. While there is darkness in this truth, nature offers reassurance that the life that fades lives on in a new form.
Artist Bio
Originally from London, U.K., Sarah McAllister is an expressive, gestural nature painter working in acrylic, watercolor, and oil. Her work offers a personal reflection on themes of grief and loss, serving as a poetic exploration of the fleeting nature of beauty. Through vibrant color and dynamic gestural strokes, Sarah reminds us that vitality exists strictly in the present as all things move through the cycle of life.
After relocating to California, Sarah earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in painting and drawing with distinction from the California College of the Arts (CCA). She has since established her art practice in the Bay Area. She is a current member of the City Art Gallery in San Francisco, the ICB Artists Association, and the Oakland Art Association, and regularly participates in group exhibitions across California and beyond.
Sarah works from her studio at the historic ICB Building in Sausalito, overlooking the San Francisco Bay.
Discover more on my Instagram page @sarahmcallisterart
RESUME
EDUCATION
California College of the Arts
- BFA painting & drawing (distinction)
Seattle Artist League
Haus of Impact
St Oswald's School of Art, London, U.K.
Art in Action, Oxford, U.K.
CVP Program, Sausalito, California
Academy of Art, San Francisco, California
GALLERIES AND ORGANIZATIONS
ICB ART* Artist Association Member, Sausalito, CA. https://www.icbart.com/
ICB ART Board Member 2025 until current day
The Trout Museum of Art, Appleton, Wisconsin
ICB ART Gallery, Sausalito, CA
City Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA - Co-operative member
Uptown Fine Art Gallery - Oakland CA,
Oakland Arts Association member
Professional Artist Association member
The Academy, Art 2 Life member
National Women's Art Caucus Member
Northern California National Women's Art Caucus Member
*Industrial Center Building Artist Studios
PUBLICATIONS
2026
Marin Open Studios magazine interview
2025
The Trout Museum of Art Made to Order Project
Art Seen, Autumn (Fall) Edition
TEACHING
2025, 2026
KIDS AND ART FOUNDATION
(lead small art groups for children with cancer)
RESIDENCIES
2024 Jen Tough, Santa Fe, New Mexico
CURATION
2025/26 19 Artists from ICB (Industrial Center Building) for The Trout Museum of Art Made to Order project
2022-current day Chair
Oakland Art Association Chair for two monthly rotating solo shows throughout the year at public venue
EXHIBITIONS and AWARDS
2026
UC Law, San Francisco, CA. Group Show.
City Art Gallery, San Francisco, Group Show - January
The Sound Room, Oakland, CA. Group Show and Chair.
Marin Open Studios, ICB ART, Sausalito, CA.
Highland's Country Club, Oakland, CA. Solo Show.
2025
The Trout Museum Made to Order Project, Appleton, WI
Piedmont Center for the Arts, Piedmont, CA .
Juror David Savellano Award: 1st Prize
Highland's Country Club, Oakland, CA. Solo show
Moonstruck Fine Jewelry, Mill Valley, CA. Solo Show
City Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Group shows - January, April, May, October, November, December
The Sound Room, Oakland, CA.
Juror Robert Bradsby - Award Honorable mention
Marin Open Studios, ICB ART, Sausalito, CA
ICB ART Open Studios, Sausalito, CA.
ICB ART Artist at Work Days, Sausalito, CA.
2024
Zhou B Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Juror and curator Sergio Gomez
San Francisco District Attorney's Office, San Francisco, CA. Group show.
A show to create a harmonious space in the victim and support lounges
The Sound Room, Oakland, CA. Solo show.
Highland's Country Club, Oakland, CA. Solo Show.
City Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Group shows - January, April, September, November, December
San Pablo Community Center, Richmond, CA. Group Show.
Juror: Anne Austin Pinata - Award: honorable mention
ICB ART Artist at Work Days, Sausalito, CA.
Jen Tough, Santa Fe, NM. Open Studios
Uptown Fine Art Gallery, Oakland CA. Art Murmur - East Bay Open Studios
2023
Alameda County Law Library, Oakland, CA.
Jurors - David and Karen Savellano - award 1st Prize
Uptown Fine Art Gallery, Oakland, CA. Group show.
Highland's Country Club, Oakland, CA. Solo Show.
City Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Group shows - September, December
2022
Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK. Summer Exhibition Finalist
Orinda Public Library , Orinda, CA. Group Show
Selection prior to Covid
Nexus Gallery, Berkeley, California
Luka's, Oakland, California
CCA gallery, Oakland, California
Java, Montclair, California
PRIVATE COLLECTORS
USA: California, Chicago, Maryland, Washington D.C., Hawaii, Boston, Minneapolis.
International: Canada, United Kingdom, France, Poland, Colombia, New Zealand, Australia.
Recent Highlights
- The Trout Museum of Art : in person artist panel conversation
- Marin Magazine interview
- Art Seen Fall publication
Copyright © 2024 Sarah McAllister Art - All Rights Reserved. Reproduction by written permission only.
The Artist reserves all reproduction rights, including the right to claim statutory copyright, in the Work.