Although I am based in the San Francisco Bay area, since 1989 I have been traveling every winter to the deserts and seacoasts of California, where I live in my van and paint and draw on site. Since retiring from full-semester teaching, I now also travel in the fall to the mountains of northern California. When I am in the Bay Area, I exhibit artwork and teach workshops (listed under "Classes and Events"). My work is mainly watercolor, and I have a considerable body of colored-pencil work as well. See my essay and images on the website www.californiadesertart.com.

Much of my work has to do with the power of erosion to shape objects and landscapes. The rocks and trees I portray have been shaped by wind and water into unusual configurations, and I see them as individuals worthy of respect and admiration.

One of my favorite subjects is sand dunes, found both on the coast and in desert areas. The dunes are ephemeral natural sculpture, shaped by wind, whose aspect changes with the changing sunlight. The many strokes of different colors of colored pencil I lay down one on top of another lend themselves to portraying dunes, which are aggregates of tiny separate particles making up large abstract shapes.

Some of my watercolors, often combined with colored pencil, portray small overlooked objects such as dried seed pods, shells and twigs which I bring to life again in the artwork. One series shows the life cycles of plants. Most people's attention is usually directed to the flowers of these plants, but I find the stalks and dried seed pods equally interesting. By combining them all into one composition, I can stretch out the time encapsulated in a painting to the entire life cycle of the plant.

Increasingly, I have been painting the wonderful outdoor scenes I have seen on my travels around California. This state is unrivaled in the variety of landscapes to be found here. Mountains, deserts, seacoasts, plains, volcanoes, ancient forests - California has it all!

Katherine McKay