Celia Foss grew up in the San Joaquin Valley as an only child on an orange ranch in the County. She quite naturally found art as her main entertainment and experimented with oil, pencil and watercolor. At age 8 while visiting her grandmother, who was an accomplished pastel artist, she was given the opportunity to paint with her. She loved the pastel media, but had no supplies to continue alone. During her educational years, Celia received many awards in watercolor, but did not have the chance to return to pastels until after her career as a mother and natural history instructor. At heart she is a naturalist and an artist, so it is quite appropriate that she should return to pastels as a media to portray her love and appreciation of nature through her beautiful land and seascapes.