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.
Kylie Fair Anderson’s work “Sunset Sway” features the waves as seen off of Washington Park in Anacortes. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
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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