A woman holding two frames in front of an arch.

Sara Beth Fair

Oil, charcoal / still life and interiors, land and sea, people and animals

“A work of art which isn't based on feeling isn't art at all.”

– Paul Cézanne

About the Artist

Huntsville, Alabama native Sara Beth Fair has been painting since 2003. Her background in the sciences—she has a Ph.D. in Optics—along with her love for the study of nature, allows her to have a technical as well as artistic understanding of light and color. Sara Beth has taught classes locally, nationally and internationally; and she has exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the Southeast. A noted plein air artist, Sara Beth has participated in many events including Cape Ann Plein Air Invitational, the Forgotten Coast Plein Air Invitational, and Art in the Open, Ireland.

Sara Beth’s artistic training has come from independent studies of the masters, plein air painting, and tutelage over the past 20 years from contemporary masters. She spent three years studying with Murat Kaboulov, a Russian impressionist, along with several students of the great Russian artist Sergei Bongart. Her style reflects her love for the Russian impressionists’ use of color and large brushwork.

Even during Sara Beth’s full-time professional career, she "kept one leg in the arts." She scheduled workshops as a vacation, participated in Zoom classes, and even watched art videos on Sunday afternoons. Sara Beth says, “I have done anything and everything I could to stay on top of my studies in art as I just do not feel complete without it.

Artist Statement

I strive to express what I am seeing with an honesty to nature and an emotional response to the subject. I guess this is why I love the impressionists, they were such students of nature and with a few brilliant strokes they said so much with so little. It is so challenging to try and capture the beauty that God has surrounded us with. This challenge seems impossible and keeps me striving to make these simple tools say what my heart wants to say. Creating art gives so much joy. It makes us view our surroundings with great consciousness and the more our lives are lived with great consciousness the richer our art, our life and our surroundings become.

Sara Beth is a member of the Salmagundi Club, American Impressionist Society, Oil Painters of America and Portrait Society of America.