04 Sep Beauty with Backbone

Kim Lordier, a celebrated pastel artist in the American West, captures not just the fleeting colors of dawn or the hush of ocean mist rolling in — she captures the light that lives within those moments. Raised in the Bay Area and inspired by the tradition of California Impressionism, Lordier has forged a singular voice in a medium often underestimated. Her landscapes pulse with clarity and reverence; her horses breathe with warmth; and through each colorful stroke, she invites viewers to see the world not as it appears, but as it feels.

Striking a Chord | Pastel | 24 x 24 inches

Historic critics of Impressionism — dubbed for creating an impression of nature, figures, and objects — railed against such painters as Manet and Monet in the latter half of the 19th century. American students of the style were mentored by French masters, but gave it a distinctively Californian and coastal ambiance. This seed flowered before and after the turn of the 20th century to give rise to California Impressionism. Maestros of that movement, such as Guy Rose and William Wendt, and those influenced by it, including Edgar Payne, continue to inspire Lordier, whose life has unfolded in the hills surrounding San Francisco.

In a genre once dismissed as merely “impressionistic,” Lordier proves that the impression can be the truth — and the truth can be transcendent. Gallerist Lorelei Gabel describes the Bay Area native as “the mistress of the medium of pastel.”

Evolution | Pastel | 36 x 24 inches

“She can achieve all the drama and saturation in pastels that typically is associated with oil paintings,” says Gabel, the director and owner of Carmel Fine Art in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, which represents the artist. “Her work has grace and backbone; that is, beauty with substance. You can have grace without backbone, and that can be merely pleasant. You can have backbone without grace, and that can be harsh. Kim has both. She is one of the most beloved artists among buyers.”

Silky Smooth | Pastel | 20 x 25 inches

Lordier enjoys depicting landscapes and horses in a style that engages the tonal power of color to create a mood. The artist earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, studying at both the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and the University of San Francisco. After graduation, however, she decided to take a different career path and became a flight attendant.

Enveloped in Warmth | Pastel | 20 x 16 inches

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, were the tragic catalyst for a seismic shift in her career, thoughts, and devotions. The world would not be the same. And neither was Lordier, who was also the daughter of a United Airlines pilot. After the events of that day, she committed to her life’s work as an artist.

By 2004, Lordier had participated in her first juried plein-air event, the Carmel Art Festival. The following year, she won the artists’ choice awards at the Sonoma Plein Air Festival and the Napa Valley Museum Plein Air Biennial. She has since garnered much additional recognition, including, most recently, the honor of Pastel Laureate from the Pastel Society of the West Coast, which recognizes an artist’s internationally significant contributions to the advancement of pastel.

From the Heavens Above is a work of beauty and precision. One more brushstroke or one fewer, and the scene would have collapsed or been unfinished. Ask Lordier where she trained her artist’s eye to achieve such a result, and she peels back the years.

Lordier has drawn and painted for her entire conscious life. There are no reports from the womb about any activities other than the usual ones — like kicking — but the sense remains that what she learned before she had words, she is now expressing in her paintings. For example, Lordier’s mother rode horses during the pregnancy. Et voilà, Lordier, an accomplished horsewoman, has known the smell, the sound, and feel of horses from her earliest memory. They were also some of her first subjects, and she sold her first portrait of a horse when she was only 15 years old.

Livin’ on a Loose Rein | Pastel | 11 x 14 inches

Decades later, she peered at the earth through cockpit windows during an all-night flight through Canada to Boston. “I was sitting up there with the captain and the co-pilot. There was a blanket of clouds below us and lightning strikes beneath that. We saw little pops of glowing light and, with the dawn, a beautiful silvery green in the horizon,” Lordier recalls. “The Northern Lights. I felt this presence. We all did. It seemed as if somebody ‘up there’ was speaking to us. I get goosebumps right now, recounting it. It was the most amazing experience.”

Last Call, Ediza | Pastel | 16 x 20 inches

The rising dawn, the flames of light, the moment of transformation: Lordier says she felt the sudden shift, as though a laser pierced one world to reveal the unseen one. “After you have an unshakable sense about God, you will never be the same,” she says.

Artists are keen to unveil what is not readily apparent to the eye, and Lordier is among the leading Western artists dedicated to evoking a desire to take a second look at the landscapes, animals, and figures that come to life under the hands of expert artists.

Baby It’s Cold | Pastel | 24 x 36 inches

Rolling In is a paean to the tide. The water, so powerful and new, washes over rock formations as clouds across the sky. Like Guy Rose, whose coastal paintings are celebrated for light, color, and action, Lordier’s exploration of the ocean, its timeless rhythms, captures more than the scene in play.

The artist, who once questioned whether her work would wear well in pastel compared to oil or always align with public taste, was told by a mentor to unleash her talent rather than hiding it away. As a result, one feels the warm breath of a quarter horse exhaling in Baby It’s Cold. Lordier has made a portrait of chilly weather: The blue shadow extends the life of snow, an edgy reality that is echoed in the expanse of foothills that form the painting’s foundation.

From the Heavens Above | Pastel | 24 x 18 inches

Like the California Impressionists before her, whose degree of painterliness varied widely, Lordier seeks to express the soul, or emotion, of trees, creatures, mountains, water. Her paintings are in private and public collections throughout the country, and have been exhibited at the Autry Museum of the American West, National Arts Club, Salmagundi Club, Haggin Museum, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Irvine Museum, Laguna Art Museum, and many others.

Shirley Stocks, owner of Wild Horse Gallery in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, which represents the artist, says she can still recall the first time she saw one of Lordier’s pastels. “The painting was a river piece; there was an iridescent light on the water. I went, ‘Wow!’ … Kim has a special light in her paintings that, to me, is really important as a gallery owner,” she says. “You need those paintings to pop off the walls from a distance, and Kim’s do; she is so good at it.”

“Wow” is one way to put it. “Magnificent” is another. For artworks by Lordier? Both.