“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
~ Pablo Picasso

The famous artist quote applies to Kathleen Keifer’s lovely paintings. Kathleen brings a fresh, clean perspective to her colorful scenes of everyday life in the sun along our Pacific coastline (and beyond). Her images of tanned surfers, beat-up VW vans and convertibles, the Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica pier, swaying palm trees, and remarkable sunsets remind me of what the locals say to each other about 350 days a year: “This is why we live here.”

Kathleen’s paintings show us why anyone would want to live here. The weather is of course pristine; it is almost always sunny and 75 degrees, and it is never humid or buggy. The scenery is breathtaking. And there is so much to do, including of course nothing. Indeed, many of the coastlines’ locals seem to be very practiced at that. Keen observers, like Keifer, prefer to depict them as being in-the-moment, completely in their own world. The artist lets us look over her shoulder and envy these characters. For one thing, they’ve figured out how to live here; more important, they’re certainly not in any hurry.

Why should they be? And why should we be, for that matter? Why not linger over Kathleen’s beautiful paintings and savor our own moment doing so?

— Peter Hursh, Introduction to Perspectives on Coastal Beauty: The Art of Kathleen Keifer