Paola Berthoin was born in London, England, and came to Carmel Valley in 1965 with her mother and three sisters. She is a graduate of Carmel High School and California College of the Arts where she
specialized in printmaking, handmade paper and animal drawing.
Paola’s deep commitment to living in Carmel Valley over sixty years and tending the land she lives on for the past fifty years has led Paola to be involved in a variety of endeavors over the past forty years. From being a pastry chef and owning and running a restaurant with her mother when she was twenty-four years old to establishing the organization, RisingLeaf Watershed Arts in 2001, completing the award-winning book Passion for Place: Community Reflections on the Carmel River Watershed in 2012, and organizing community arts events focused on the Carmel River Watershed since 1990, many seeds of ecological awareness through the arts have been and continue to be planted locally and globally.
Additionally, Paola documented the historic San Clemente Dam removal from 2014-2016 through thirty-five plein air paintings, photographs, video and sound while the project was taking place. She also collected rebar and other metals from the dam and created the historic public art sculpture “Transformation in Restoration”. with metal artists Richard Schrader and Fred Saunders. It is installed at the Palo Corona Regional Park.
Paola continues to document vanishing landscapes of Carmel Valley and the former Fort Ord in plein air paintings. In 2019 she started creating paintings of the 389 climate threatened and endangered birds of North America, according to the Audubon Society.
These bird portraits feature birds Paola has seen in her gardens as well as further afield in Carmel Valley and beyond.

Заявление художника
My art is about love of the land and rivers. By living in one place for fifty years, that place has come to reside in me. Ephemeral light, patterns, shapes, movement, relationships of colors inspire me to respond to the innate urge to create, to be actively engaged in the dynamics of the natural world.
Spending time outside reminds me of our place in the grand scheme of things. We live in a more-than-human world. My art encompasses a dedication to protecting what I can, through active caring for the land and through expressing my imagination through creative endeavors.
In sharing a commitment for healthy watersheds, it helps foster a cultural shift where the natural world becomes integral to people’s lives.