Kat Sawyer has California in her blood. Raised in Pasadena at the hem of the magnificent San Gabriels, Kat spent much of her childhood outdoors exploring the land that inspired so many early Impressionists. With her scientist father’s love of nature and her artist mother’s love of beauty, Kat came to landscape painting in a natural, but roundabout way.

She began her artistic life by exclusively pursuing a career in acting. She received a B.A. in theater from U.C.L.A. and has appeared in close to one hundred television shows and commercials.

To balance her outward focus as a performer, Kat has been practicing the inner discipline of yoga for over thirty years. She’s been teaching this art since 1993.

Her painting career was the result of two happy co-incidences. She fell in love with early California Impressionism, at the same time falling for a fly fisherman. She thought, “I like Nature. I like art. Landscape painting! It will give me something to do while he’s fishing.” She was hooked.

Kat works exclusively in oil. She begins her process en plein air and then moves into the studio. Her pieces, which she calls “LandEscapes”, invite the viewer to experience the tranquility and harmony of Nature. She purposely omits any sign of humanity in her paintings – no figures – nothing man-made. She wants to heighten the feeling of escape into a wild and untouched place where one can experience their true, authentic self.

Kat’s influences are the old California masters – Maurice Braun, John Gamble, Hanson Puthuff. Essentially self-taught, Kat has painted with some of today’s finest modern Impressionists – Kevin MacPherson, Ray and Peggy Kroll Roberts, and her long- time inspiration, Karl Dempwolf.

Her work has been shown in international, national, and regional exhibitions. She has won awards from Cincinnati to Morro Bay.

Her humorous article, “Extreme Painting” (the perils of plein air) was published in the October 2003 issue of The Artist’s Sketchbook magazine.

In March 2006, The Artists Magazine published her essay, “The Painting-Yoga Connection”.

As for the future, Kat plans to split her time between her first love, California and her new love, New Mexico. She and her fisherman have bought land in Taos and plan to build a second retreat where she will continue to study with her most significant muse and mentor, Nature.