Beverly Kies is a regionally recognized pastel artist residing in Hendersonville, North Carolina. She has served as Chairperson of the Hendersonville Art League evening association, is a member of the Southeastern Pastel Society, and served as President of the Appalachian Pastel Society.

Her interest in art began at the age of five, when her mother, a watercolor and oil painter, sent her to the Atlanta School of Art. This early passion eventually led to a degree in fine arts from The Ohio State University. Following graduation, the next few years found her in Colorado and Arizona, where she was inspired by the colors and character of the American Southwest.

Returning to her native Atlanta, Georgia, Beverly pursued a far more serious and focused pursuit of her painting. She attended Callanwolde Fine Arts Center under the direction of Kate Fetterolf, concentrating on the human figure. She spent the next five years studying at the Gwinnett Fine Arts Center under pastel artist Mikki Dillon, who encouraged Beverly to branch out in new directions. “Studying the human figure for so many years gave me a good foundation in drawing and painting.

Although she has worked in both oil and acrylic, pastels are what she loves. “The immediacy of pastels and the layering of colors works well for me.” Some people associate pastels with muted colors, but in Beverly’s paintings the colors explode off the paper. Her paintings are represented in a medley of work, with her most recent emphasis on the animal world, primarily horses, dogs, cats and bears, done in both contemporary and traditional representations. Steve & Jo Quatannens discovered Beverly Kies’s work at Wickwire Gallery in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Impressed by Beverly’s inspired use of strong color, and her talent for capturing equine movement and personality in stylized forms, they commissioned “Square Dance ll” as the focal point of the library at “The Willows,” their farm on Greenspace of Fairview.

Almost exclusively, Beverly works from photographs she has taken either in her everyday activities or during her travels across the country and Europe. In addition to galleries in Georgia, western North Carolina and South Carolina, Beverly’s work has been represented in many juried shows. Her work also hangs in numerous private owner art collections and in professional offices. She is available for commission work based on the client’s photography or examples.