Kylie Fair Anderson
Age: 35
City: Anacortes
Lived here for: 3 years
Originally from: Burlington
Notable: Painter, social-media famous (18.5K TikTok followers), Burlington-Edison High School grad
Do you mostly do plein air paintings?
(Pointing to her paintings, on display at Skagit Cellars Winery in La Conner.) Many of them are: the pumpkins, the daffodils. Most of the time, it’ll end up being more than one sitting because I like to go higher-detail. I’ll try to match the same time of day, as close to the same lighting as I can.
When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
My dad is actually an artist. He loves to paint, so I was always surrounded by artwork in our home. It was like a little mini gallery.
I remember doing my first still-life painting when I was, like, 10 years old. It was some flowers in a vase and some oranges. My dad set it up for me. I would take [my painting] to him, and he would critique it: “You need more contrast there.” It was like a little art class all the time.
Who were your biggest influences?
Besides my dad I would say I like Monet’s plein air. I love the work of — there’s a much older artist, Albert Bierstadt. He’s not as well known, I think, as Monet, but just does these beautiful massive landscapes with so much beautiful light.
What are some of the favorite places you like to paint?
Oh well, I mean, endless inspiration in Anacortes, where I live. I was just in Bow and Edison yesterday, and that’s “inspiration city” out there.
I’ve actually done a couple in Bellingham, at Whatcom Falls. I did one in Leavenworth this past Christmas, which was crazy because it was snowing while I was painting.
I did not, probably, prepare the best for that. I knew it was gonna snow, but I thought the snow would just come down normal and it was, like, sideways snow. A lot of nice people brought me hot chocolate.
I can tell that you love your work.
Truly, I’m just so into it, I even forget I have a phone while I’m doing it — except if I stop to do a quick TikTok. And I feel like that is just so great, when you’re doing something you love so much that you forget about your smartphone.
How do you use social media?
I just have fun on there. I’m on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. I might show a painting and process. Sometimes I’ll do time lapses from start to finish. A lot of times it’s me lip-syncing or doing funny dances or skits that I’ve made up on my own.
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