“I live and paint in rural Northern California and my work is heavily influenced by the incredible landscape that surrounds me. I am an avid hiker and spend much of my summers camping the Sierra Nevada and the Southern Cascade mountains near my home. I call myself a ‘northern’ Northern Californian, as I rarely find myself venturing south toward the Bay Area and Tahoe, what most folks call Northern California. My wanderings and my art often center on the landscape surrounding Lassen Volcanic National Park, one of the least-visited National Parks.”

“Most of my work features the wild animals native to my corner of California. While the exotic fauna of Africa and Asia is always an inspiration, I find myself time and again returning to the creatures of my roots, the mountain lions, coyotes and wolves and the smaller critters that call my mountains home. The landscape of this region is also particularly evocative. I find little desire to paint a mountain, a canyon, a valley, that I do not know or one that is entirely invented. Instead, I prefer to paint a place that I know well, one where I have spent time, hiked, slept under the stars. Just as we wildlife artists must study our subject, sketch, photograph and observe to understand the play of muscles under the skin, the way light reflects off of a dappled coat, so too must I study the fall of light through the golden aspens, the alpenglow as the last rays of the sun catch the high peaks, the cut of a river through a valley to truly be able to render it on canvas.”

Sarah Skinner is inspired to paint the landscapes and wildlife of Northern California. She spend time hiking and camping in the mountains and wild places, with her camera and her pochade box in her truck, ready to capture the soul of the landscape in her paintings.