Tana Sommer-Belin

Tana Sommer-Belin passed away in her home March 27, 2026. Tana was born in 1946 in California. She began to paint seriously at the age of fifteen greatly supported by her early teacher and mentor at Santa Barbara High School, Jack Baker, who used color exuberantly and found inspiration in nature’s beauty.

Her studies took her to the University of California at Berkeley in 1964 where she learned photography, and to the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland where she studied the various techniques of painting and drawing. In 1974 she started etching at the Atelier Buri in Amsterdam. During the following years her etchings were shown in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Paris, Aix-en-Provence, and California. Between 1979 and 1988 her studio was in France in Forcalquier, Alpes de Haute Provence, where she printed her own color photos and continued etching and watercolor painting. When she returned to California in 1989, with her French husband and their daughter, she returned to oil, painting seascapes and California coastal landscapes.

Tana’s style turned to abstract works around 2010.  At this time in her career, Tana felt a sense of freedom combined with urgency, leading her into deeper personal and artistic authenticity.  She divided her painting year between Santa Barbara and Condeau, in the lower Normandy region of France for almost 10 years.

Tana was an artist through and through, but also a person sincerely interested in people and always ready to lend a hand. Hosting piano concerts, gathering friends over a home-cooked meal (most notably her farmer’s market salads), and sharing in a beautiful moment over Champagne were her specialties. Her sense of humor and love of life were boundless. She was the epitome of loyalty, of empathy, giving generously to causes dear to her heart. Often described as a force both in creativity and her will to live life to the fullest made her an inspiration and precious friend to many. Friends say she believed strongly that good things could always happen while simultaneously taking action to ensure they did. She was a loving mother, grandmother and friend. Her art – endless skies with magical clouds, flowers, the landscapes in France where she lived half of her adult life – speaks for itself. Joy, light, life.

She leaves behind her daughter, Eve Sommer-Belin, son in law Jeff Behl, and her adored grandchildren, Olive and Max Behl, and grand-dog Griffin.