Welcome to the studio. The environment I work in deeply informs my art practice. While I do most of my painting inside this space, my practice also often involves field work in nature. Inspired by the colors, rock formations, plants and patterns of coastal California, I collect sand and other natural pigments to use in my paintings and make painting tools out of natural objects found in my garden or local open spaces. I like to think that the paintings I make hold some of the spirit or essence of the natural places I frequent. The landscape around me is my muse and is always teaching me new ways to see and think about painting.

A backyard with a garden of purple, pink, and green plants in front of an art studio with redwood siding, large windows and a covered patio area with outdoor furniture.
Artist's studio with a wooden desk and white swivel chair, large windows revealing greenery outside, potted plants on the desk, books on a small bookshelf, and artwork on the white wall.
An artist's workspace with abstract painted fabric or paper, a large green leaf, a glass jar with black paint, and a container of mixed sand or granular material, seen from above.
Artist Ahna Serendren wearing a neon yellow beanie, black jacket, and black pants crouching on sandy beach, using a clear plastic bag to collect sand, with dunes and blue sky in background.
A top-down view of five open containers filled with different colored sand on a table covered with paint splatters, with some blue-painted canvases nearby.
A child and woman's hands holding various rocks and minerals.
A stone mortar with a pestle, containing red powdered pigment on a neutral-colored surface.
A jar of homemade earth pigment, a textured piece of paper with handwritten notes and a swatch of color, a small shell used as a paint palette, and a paintbrush resting on the shell.
Art studio with large windows, featuring abstract paintings on the walls, a white chair at a desk, art supplies, and a cozy window seat with pillows.
An orange tabby cat lying on a colorful, splattered paint cloth, with its eyes closed and a relaxed posture.
A child dressed in a green jacket, patterned leggings, and boots, wearing a hat and pink gloves, standing near a large pool of dark brown water on white salt flats with a landscape of brown hills and trees under a cloudy sky in the background.
Colorful layered rock formation at Torrey Pines State Reserve in Del Mar, CA.
A glass muller and ochre pigment on a glass artist's palette.
Two sheets of paper showing samples of raw earth pigments, each with handwritten labels and geographic locations. The left sheet lists unprocessed earth pigments from California beaches and human-made settings, with color swatches of sands and soils.
Various smooth, rounded rocks and pebbles of different colors arranged on a damp, mossy rock surface surrounded by small green plants and dried leaves.
Seaweed and rocks on a sandy beach with tide washing over the sand and into a small tide pool.
A hand with fingers touching the sand on the ground, with a pattern or shape drawn in the sand.
Gray stone bowl with blue granules inside, a few blue stones outside, and a small gray stone pestle on a wooden surface.
Close-up of a weathered stone wall with various cracks and layers of reddish-brown and beige rocks.
Overcast beach scene with waves, rocks, and distant hills, showing a long seaweed line on wet sand.
Open sketchbook on grass showing colorful, pigment swatches of various plants, with handwritten notes and labels describing each swatch alongside small plant flowers placed on the pages.