Artists to Watch | Sarah Kidner - Southwest Art Magazine

Stop and stare

Sarah Kidner, Au Café, oil, 12 x 18.

Shedding light on simple, commonplace moments is the reason Sarah Kidner picks up a paintbrush practically every day. She is increasingly aware of how fast-paced our lives have become, and her paintings are invitations to slow down and savor. “I feel the most excited when I can show the beauty in a scene we might have otherwise overlooked,” she says. “I hope to inspire people to see everyday life in a different way.”

It might be the unique way light is moving through an outdoor scene that grabs the artist’s attention, or observing interesting shapes, colors, and patterns woven around and through a group gathered together. Kidner is fascinated by people and their unique movements, personalities, and idiosyncrasies. “I love to capture body language,” she says. “Sometimes I paint portraits to really capture a person’s story and facial expressions. Other times, especially in group scenes, I am after the way individual body languages and positive and negative shapes fit together.”

: Sarah Kidner, Feeling Good, oil, 12 x 16

: Sarah Kidner, Quick Lunch, oil, 12 x 16.

: Sarah Kidner, In the Park, oil, 12 x 16.

Kidner’s outdoor café and market scenes are some of her most popular, and these works demonstrate exactly how she connects all the pieces. Painted in an impressionistic style, with bright shapes of color and light, the compositions are designed with a focus on the gestural movement of people enjoying conversations, meals, and other leisurely activities outdoors. These energetic paintings serve as celebrations of life and the moments we are given to enjoy.

Over the course of her career, Kidner has been influenced by painters of the past, including the Group of Seven and the French Impressionists. She studied art history and philosophy at the University of Toronto and, over the next several decades, took workshops with a variety of painters she admired, which helped her to find her preferred style. Maintaining a studio in British Columbia, Canada, Kidner’s proximity to the Rocky Mountains is a humbling source of inspiration, and she can often be found hiking, skiing, and plein-air painting in her bucolic surroundings. –Allison Malafronte