Winter 2023

“Home base for Anka was Las Vegas,” Price says. “But we traveled across the U.S. in Learjets and lived in and traveled in Europe.” After three years of working for Anka, Price settled in Carmel, which she had discovered when visiting Anka’s house in the Jacks Peak neighbor- hood. She quickly built a large clientele with a suc- cessful hair salon on Ocean Avenue in the Doud Arcade.The transition from hair stylist to painter began at age 40, when Price was idly sketching some images that she saw in an equestrian book and thought,“Strange, I didn’t realize I could draw.” It turned out not only she could draw, but she could paint, too. “My grandmother must have tapped me on the shoulder and told me to get started,” she says. Price took some local art classes and work- shops, and began painting still lifes, figures, and then plein air landscapes and seascapes. Her tal- ent was quickly apparent, and her evocative style was outstanding enough for her to be juried into the prestigious Carmel Art Association in 2017. For a while, Price kept cut- ting hair while growing as an artist. “I moved my business to The Barnyard Shopping Center and continued with hair and art until my art sales outgrew my hair income and I couldn’t keep up with both,” she says. A year ago, Price opened a new art gallery in downtown Carmel, located on Sixth Avenue, where both her husband and son help with the business. She takes out her mountain bike regu- larly and has two horses, one of which she rides, at her home off Highway 68, in “Steinbeck Country,” where she and her husband convert- ed part of a barn into an art studio. Price’s subject matter ranges from her hors- es, like her Andalusian, Diamante, famous local landmarks like Point Lobos and Big Sur, and commissions, which are often inspired by exist- ing works in her gallery. She creates about one custom piece per month, working quickly. “The client says, ‘I like that painting but it has to be this size and these colors, I’ll send you pic- tures of my decor and walls,’” she says. After offering frame choices from local vendor Elliott (Above) “Bixby Bridge” and (below) “Sensational Sunset.” Price paints in her home studio, a converted horse barn that also has stalls for her two horses. 130 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 3