If artist Mara Abboud is painting in her Santa Barbara studio, don't bother knocking or calling her on the phone. When she is immersed in the creative process she doesn't take calls and she doesn't answer the door. Abboud likes total silence when she paints with just the sound of the waves from the Pacific Ocean, which she can clearly see from her window, as the only audible distraction.
For 29 years Abboud has made her living solely as an artist. For the last 26 of those years she's lived here in Santa Barbara, having moved west from New York City. During her lifetime she has created around 300 paintings. Many of them are hanging on the walls of the homes of her numerous collectors.
(Continued at Montecito Messenger.)
