We were at Cole Cafe the other day, and found ourselves sitting underneath one of Sarah Haba's paintings. We'd seen this work before -- we racked our brain for where -- and then we remembered: at an open house.

The apartment was the most beautifully staged we'd ever seen. It turned out to be the handiwork of the seller, who was a painter and had used much of her own art in the staging. Her paintings were striking, and they added luminosity to an already light-filled top floor Edwardian.

The paintings (most of which sold very quickly) are part of a series of mother-with-daughter paintings that Sarah has produced since having her own daughter. They grew out of the observation that taking care of a young child seemed to make her previously broad existence "telescope down" to her own living room. She began painting other mothers in their living rooms with their kids, depicting the different world they belong to.

Sarah has beautifully captured an experience that's rarely represented. All the white in her palette gives these scenes an ethereal glow. The mother-child dyads (a famous subject in art history if there ever was one) are observed dispassionately, turned in on their own small world, and they feel slightly remote.

Sarah sold her apartment and she and her family recently moved to the East Bay. You can reach her there at this email address. (Update: Click here for her website.)