Simone Steiff-Allistair is a soft pastel artist whose creative journey reflects a deep love for color, nature, and human connection. For over a decade, she owned and operated a charming café in the heart of Sarasota, Florida, a warm and vibrant gathering place cherished by the local community. After many successful years as a business owner, Simone decided to close the café and devote herself fully to her lifelong passion for art.
A passionate collector of paintings since childhood, Simone has always been drawn to the expressive power of color and light. Now working full-time as an artist, she channels her creativity into soft pastel paintings that radiate vitality, serenity, and emotional depth.
Inspired by the Beauty of Florida
Living near some of Florida’s most breathtaking natural landscapes has profoundly shaped Simone’s artistic vision. She finds endless inspiration in the crystal-clear freshwater springs and the ever-changing hues of the Gulf of Mexico. The greens and blues of the ocean, the reflections on calm waters, and the sunlight filtering through trees all serve as muses for her work.
Her art celebrates the harmony between land, water, and light. Every pastel painting begins with a spark often a photograph she takes while exploring Florida’s coastal and inland scenery. These images become the foundation for her compositions, which she transforms through imagination and emotion. Each work captures not just the appearance of a scene but its energy and spirit.
The Expressive Language of Pastel
Soft pastel is Simone’s medium of choice, valued for its immediacy, vibrancy, and tactile quality. Working on sanded paper, she layers and blends colors to achieve depth and atmosphere. The process allows her to create a dynamic interplay of texture and light, where each stroke of pigment brings movement and life to the scene.
She is particularly drawn to the medium’s purity of color. Pastel, with its rich pigments and ability to capture subtle variations in tone, allows her to translate the nuances of natural light directly onto the surface. The result is artwork that feels alive, luminous, textural, and full of presence.
Richmond Terrace Walk
One of Simone’s recent works, Richmond Terrace Walk, reflects her continuing exploration of landscape and light. Created with a variety of pastels on sanded paper, the painting was inspired by a summer trip to London. During her travels with her husband, she visited museums, walked through the city’s many beautiful parks, and found inspiration in their tranquil views.
The walk that inspired this piece took place along Richmond Hill, overlooking the historic Richmond Terrace. The sweeping landscape, with its trees and soft atmospheric distance, provided a perfect subject for Simone’s sense of color and composition. Through her pastels, she captures the delicate balance between detail and atmosphere a shimmering moment of peace and beauty.
As with much of her work, Richmond Terrace Walk is more than a record of a place. It is a memory, a feeling, and a visual reflection of her connection to nature and travel.
From Observation to Emotion
Simone’s artistic process begins long before she starts painting. She observes her surroundings closely, paying attention to how light moves across water, how colors shift with the time of day, and how landscapes change with the seasons. Many of her compositions begin with photographs she takes while exploring, but she rarely reproduces them exactly.
Her approach is interpretive rather than documentary. She uses her references as a starting point, allowing imagination and emotion to guide her hand. The colors in her work often become more expressive than realistic, creating a sense of atmosphere that reflects how the moment felt rather than how it appeared. This balance between observation and emotion gives her art its unique depth and sensitivity.
Exploring New Directions
While Simone is primarily known for her landscapes, she has recently been exploring the genre of still life. In these works, she studies how light interacts with the form of the reflection of glass, the curve of fruit, or the soft texture of fabric. Still life painting allows her to slow down and focus on the subtleties of color, shadow, and shape.
This exploration represents a natural extension of her love for light and mood. Whether she is capturing the openness of a seascape or the quiet intimacy of a tabletop scene, her focus remains on the emotional resonance of her subjects.
A Life Immersed in Art
For Simone Steiff-Allistair, art is both a personal calling and a way to connect with the world around her. Her paintings reflect a life rich with observation, travel, and a deep appreciation for nature’s beauty. From the tranquil springs of Florida to the timeless landscapes of Europe, she finds inspiration everywhere she goes.
Her journey from café owner to full-time artist is a testament to her courage and dedication, a reminder that it is never too late to follow one’s passion. Through her mastery of pastel, Simone invites viewers to share in her world of color, light, and reflection.
Each painting is a moment suspended in time, filled with warmth and emotion. In every work, Simone captures not only what she sees but what she feels: the serenity of a place, the glow of sunlight, and the quiet joy of being present in nature.
