“My painting process was similar to that of conducting science: start with an idea, experiment, and (most importantly!!) let go of the outcome.”
A Cartographer of the Invisible
In Sara McKenzie‘s world, painting is less an act of depiction than one of discovery. Her creative life draws from two profoundly different but unexpectedly complementary disciplines: biotechnology and visual art. With a four-decade career spent navigating the intricacies of scientific experimentation, she brings a rare analytical clarity to her artistic process. Yet, this logical framework is continually softened and reshaped by intuition, emotion, and material play. Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 2014, McKenzie now devotes herself entirely to abstract painting, allowing the work to evolve in conversation with her inner life and surroundings. Since exhibiting publicly in 2023, her career has swiftly expanded beyond borders, with her work now appearing in exhibitions across the United States and Europe.
McKenzie’s artistic evolution mirrors her life’s layered geography. Born in Nebraska and raised between Southern California and Massachusetts, she cultivated an openness to contradiction—coast and prairie, order and improvisation. Her early years were shaped by curiosity and a hands-on relationship with materials, even while building a career grounded in data and design. This dual identity—artist and scientist—never operated in isolation. Her scientific work demanded creativity, while her art required structure. The iterative nature of experiments—forming hypotheses, observing outcomes, and adapting accordingly—would eventually shape the way she approached the canvas. Her compositions are less planned than uncovered, with each decision guided by what the surface seems to ask for next.
Despite always identifying as a maker, McKenzie did not fully embrace the label “artist” until recently. After immersing herself in Santa Fe’s artist community and studying under several accomplished painters, she found the confidence to pursue her work more publicly. The encouragement of a local curator in late 2022 led her to refine her focus, scale up her canvases, and prepare for a solo show in 2023. This moment marked a pivotal shift: from private practice to professional presentation. Since then, armed with just a website and Instagram, she has received invitations to exhibit from galleries across Europe—testament to the resonance and reach of her increasingly distinctive voice.
Artist Sara McKenzie
Countepoint
Sara McKenzie: Where Process Becomes the Subject
McKenzie defines herself as a process painter, a description that encapsulates both her scientific and artistic philosophies. Her method begins with an idea but is not tethered to it. She paints in stages, layering acrylics, collage materials, and pastels, often removing as much as she adds. Rather than working toward a preconceived image, she allows each layer to inform the next, stepping back to observe, question, and respond. The act of painting becomes an evolving dialogue between intention and accident—where the unknown is not feared but welcomed. In many cases, months pass before a piece tells her what it needs to become.
Her approach mirrors the very logic she practiced in science. Each painting is an experiment, driven by curiosity, informed by analysis, and often concluded with a sense of awe at its final form. Unlike representational painters, McKenzie doesn’t begin with a subject but with sensation and response. She draws from her own inner shifts, as well as the vast visual and emotional input of the natural world. This openness to uncertainty—this refusal to control the outcome—defines her studio ethos. Rather than dominate the materials, she lets them participate, resulting in work that feels spontaneous yet coherent, expressive yet grounded.
Among her various series, “Pathways” stands out as a foundational exploration. In these works, she examined the interplay between inner landscapes and external environments, using texture, color, and form to evoke the often-unseen patterns that guide human experience. This body of work laid the groundwork for a more recent direction: fully abstract representations of nature and the feelings it evokes. These newer pieces capture the raw energy and emotional charge of natural spaces—not their likeness, but their essence. Each composition aims to reflect the joy, wonder, and quiet revelation that comes from being immersed in wild places.
Progression in Retrograde
Between Silence and Saturation
The physical environment of McKenzie’s studio plays a subtle but significant role in shaping her practice. Located away from the distractions of home and city noise, the space offers her the solitude necessary for deep concentration. She works surrounded by light, music, and the comforting presence of her dogs—simple elements that ground her and support immersion. Large wall surfaces allow her to engage with multiple works simultaneously, facilitating a continuous rhythm of movement between paintings. This setup is essential to her method, which depends on gestural freedom and sustained focus.
Her studio is deliberately arranged to minimize interruptions. Phone notifications are silenced, and visual stimuli are limited by positioning windows behind her workspace. This arrangement creates a sensory buffer, letting her attention fall entirely on the evolving language of color and shape before her. In this quiet, insulated environment, time behaves differently. Hours can pass unnoticed as she listens to the cues offered by each composition, waiting for the moment when the next mark becomes clear. For McKenzie, distraction is not just an inconvenience; it breaks the fragile thread between thought and gesture, analysis and instinct.
Even in the absence of formal training, McKenzie’s influences are evident in her use of color, movement, and form. She draws inspiration not from specific schools or mentors but from a broader appreciation of light and experimentation. The Impressionists, with their luminous palette and embrace of perception over realism, resonate with her aesthetic. Matisse’s cutouts and Miro’s linear fluidity offer further reference points—not for imitation, but for their liberated approach to composition. These echoes of modernism are filtered through her own experimental lens, resulting in paintings that are uniquely her own: structured yet fluid, vivid yet introspective.
Fresh Powder
Falling Into Place
Sara McKenzie: The Paintings That Whisper Back
McKenzie’s connection to specific artworks often begins long before she makes them. One enduring influence is the work of Wassily Kandinsky, particularly his 1925 piece “Yellow-Red-Blue.” This painting captivated her decades ago, sparking a fascination that never waned. Experiencing it in person at the Louvre in Abu Dhabi was, for her, a transformative moment. The vibrancy of its colors and the precision of its brushwork held a power no reproduction could match. Kandinsky’s integration of color, shape, and musicality resonates deeply with her, affirming the emotive potential of abstraction—a quality she continually strives to access in her own practice.
Two of McKenzie’s own paintings hold personal significance: “What Lies Beneath” and “Progression in Retrograde.” Both began with the energetic gestures of soft pastels, a medium she uses to map motion and feeling before applying acrylic. “Progression in Retrograde,” in particular, underwent a striking evolution. After building up its layers, she completed it with a final collage of handmade pink art paper—adding a tactile, almost architectural presence to the work. These pieces embody her belief that a painting’s resolution often arrives slowly, through a series of unexpected turns and quiet revelations.
McKenzie continues to explore a growing body of work rooted in the natural world’s emotional impact. Her painting “Garden Path” marked the beginning of a new series that translates nature into pure abstraction. In these works, she does not aim to replicate flowers, skies, or terrain, but to channel the emotional resonance they carry—feelings of awe, stillness, and connection. Through vivid palettes and rhythmic forms, she paints not what the eye sees, but what the spirit feels when surrounded by unfiltered beauty. This ongoing project reflects the core of her practice: to make visible the invisible, to let color and texture speak where language falls short.
