About the Artist

Well... I was born a LONG time ago... back in days of yore, when I used to ask my grandmother.. what was it like before cars?  Now my grandkids ask me, Grandma, what was it like before cars?

My father was an army officer, and we moved constantly during my childhood.  Japan, Germany, Taiwan, and lots of different states.  I actually liked moving, I enjoy seeing what else is out there in the world. Somehow, we never lived in the west, and after one year @ Ringling school of Art, Sarasota, Florida,  back when it was still in the old Army Barracks and no air conditioning, I decided to head west with a young man I was sure I was in love with.  Well, he didn't last, but the west captured my heart, I managed to graduate from a state university with a BFA, and when I drove into southern Utah in 1975, I was hooked.

I have lived in southern Utah ever since.  Over 40 years in Sevier County, south central Utah, where art is looked upon with suspicion, UNLESS!  It looks just like a photograph!  But why does it cost so much?   To top it off, I'm not a member of the prevailing social order, the Church that rules the State of Utah. I am a very suspicious character... painting all those pictures.. and they don't look like a photograph, really, what are they good for?  

After a couple decades of being a wife & mother, my husband died, and kids grew up and moved away, and then I discovered Plein Air. And that's when I began to meet other Utah artists, who apparently had been hiding from that suspicious character in Sevier County.  Cut to The Little Mermaid.. singing.. a whole new world..... other artists are GREAT.  Sure it was depressing to see how good they were, but they were willing to share tips and important knowledge that helped me a lot.  And I'm a late bloomer anyway..  

Cut to the present.. I have a plethora of paintings all over my house, and I needed a web page to offer these at extremely reasonable prices, to people who wouldn't mind getting an "early Sara Straw" before she became famous and fabulously wealthy from sales of her art. Snap them up people... I was a fairly good beginner.  And I only saved the good ones. 

This is the reason I catagorized my paintings by price. Never say you can't afford a nice work of original art done by a pretty good artist. ( I say that, having a great deal of knowledge of the REALLY good artists whose work has a few more 00s before the decimal point, than mine do.)  Start small, enjoy, then, once you are addicted... check out the more expensive work. :)