Ahna Serendren’s work draws deeply from the landscape of California, where she was born and raised. Her art practice often involves field work in nature, collecting sand and driftwood, photographing rock formations and sourcing color palettes from the coastal environment. Keenly aware of changes to these fragile ecosystems within her lifetime, Serendren often explores impermanence in her work, employing materials that are intentionally unstable and ephemeral. Plastic sheeting that she paints and layers with sand cracks and peels, creating a surface that is active, fragile and mutable. Residue, spills and chance marks on plastic drop cloths sometimes become focal points in the work, creating paintings built of fleeting traces.

In the studio, Serendren’s process often begins by picking through piles of raw materials, scraps and studio artifacts to create new relationships between disparate elements that feel like they have some urgency and freshness to them. Serendren approaches these freeform painting constructions as invitations to break apart old patterns and introduce new ways of seeing and thinking in her practice.

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.

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.

Overcast beach scene with waves, rocks, and distant hills, showing a long seaweed line on wet sand.

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.

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.

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.