“Painting directly from nature –
this makes me happy.”

My sketchbooks define who I am as an artist … always in the field … drawing the world in front of me. I prefer painting on a colored ground … the brighter the better. Recently I have started packing oil and canvas when I travel. 

My studio is behind my house in Taylorsville, California, high up in a beautiful, isolated valley of the northern Sierra. I can go out my door and set up an easel whenever I want, doing a pastel or a drawing of my town, with the sweeping valley and mountains beyond.

I work quickly. I have come to realize that there is no “right way” to do a piece. Get the picture going, and at some point it will take on a life of its own. When this happens, I have a “visual dialogue” with what is there and make changes until it becomes something that will stand on its own.

“Every time I think I’m hitting my stride, I turn into the excited beginner, fascinated with the materials at hand."

—Sally Yost