Phoebe Kimble: The eyes have it

I enjoy capturing expressions on people’s faces. The eyes of my subjects reveal emotions that are rarely apparent at first glance. – Phoebe Kimble

By TIM WILCOX

Special to the Alpine Mountaineer

It was a clear sign of a promising and even precocious talent. Phoebe Kimble sold her first artwork when she was just 4 years old.

“As a kid I always liked to doodle and had a crayon or pencil in hand,” she recalls. “I did a pencil profile of this lady in church, and someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘I like that. Can I buy it?’” Then, with a laugh, Phoebe adds, “I looked at my mom and said, ‘What’s she talking about?’” Did Phoebe sell that drawing? Yes—for $1!

Adding charcoal to her collection of crayons and pencils, she began sketching people in many different settings. “That was my entry into the world of art,” Phoebe says.

Her entry into the world was in Cincinnati, Ohio. The family moved to Tennessee, then to Texas, where her father continued his career as an engineer. “He was always doing line drawings, which inspired me to refine my skills and eventually led to work as a draftsman for many years,” Phoebe says. That vocation began while she was in high school and continued during studies at a community college in Alvin, Texas. Her emphases during those two years: drafting, architecture and interior design.

Continuing her incipient career as a draftsman, Phoebe evolved in the direction of hands-on work. “I wanted to become more involved in the actual building of things,” she recalls. So Phoebe earned a credential in construction management and passed a rigorous test to become a general contractor. That was an oh, so practical move. It wasn’t directly connected to the artist in her, which remained alive and well but not in the immediate foreground. 

Go west, young woman

In 1987 Phoebe made yet another major move, this time on her own. She enrolled at what was then Ambassador College in Pasadena, seeking to enrich her faith with studies in theology. But her love of design remained strong, and Phoebe was drawn to the highly regarded Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles, earning a bachelor’s degree in interior design. Energetic and ambitious, she followed that program by pursuing an MBA from American Intercontinental University, also in L.A. and now closed. “I had to have that credential if I was going to run my own business,” she says.

During those formative years, Phoebe was married and had three children. Following a divorce, she remarried – this time to Gregory Kimble, who would become not only her life’s partner but her business partner as well.

In 2017 the couple established a general-contracting firm in Sylmar, winning clients all over the San Fernando Valley. Thanks to Phoebe’s extensive design skills and Gregory’s expertise as an engineer, Irie Smart Home Design prospered – reflecting the meaning of “Irie” in West Indian/Jamaican: “Everything’s going to be all right.”

It pretty much was, except for the weather. Climate change and an intolerably warm San Fernando Valley during summer months inspired yet another move. “When the temperature topped 118, we knew it was time,” Phoebe says. So the couple did extensive exploring and research before buying a property in mile-high Lake Arrowhead. There, beginning in 2020, they designed and built a home that bears their shared professional and personal signatures. “Because of COVID, it took two years to finish rather than eight to 10 months,” Phoebe says.

Celebrating “home at last” in October 2022, Phoebe and Gregory continued to operate Irie Smart Home Design, with most clients drawn from the San Fernando Valley. “That’s where people knew us and where word-of-mouth was strong,” Phoebe says. “But we’re hoping to shift the business closer and closer to home, of course.”

The always-present artist

As a matter of pure aesthetic preference, Phoebe is first and foremost an artist. For many years in between construction projects she’s focused on that passion. Working primarily with acrylics and oils, she creates striking portraits of people and animals.

“I enjoy capturing expressions on people’s faces, moments when they reveal emotions that may have been hidden,” Phoebe shares. “And people live with animals, of course, but not always in harmony. In my paintings they do.”

Her settings are frequently overseas, with people drawn from cultures in the Middle East and Africa, for instance. The animals include camels, giraffes, zebras, cheetahs and more. An American setting may feature a horse and a bald eagle or a mountain lion. The works are marked by vibrant colors such as red, orange, yellow and gold with cooler complementary blues. And all of Phoebe’s portraits tend to focus on faces, of people and animals.

Especially with her human subjects, she emphasizes that “the eyes reveal emotions that are rarely apparent at first glance.” As the familiar saying goes, “The eyes are the window to the soul” – attributed to both William Shakespeare and Leonardo da Vinci.

Her biggest challenge is “getting the composition of my paintings just right.” Careful positioning of people and animals on the canvas is essential. “I also struggle to get the people’s eyes, their nose and lips just right. When I do, it’s hugely rewarding!”

Phoebe has worked in watercolor and loves the effects of that medium. She’s developed a technique of making acrylics look like watercolors, with subtle blending of the paints. The background of her pieces is in acrylics, often rendered with a palette knife. Then she finishes with oil paints, which “give me the depth perception of shadow and light and a richer feel.”

So here we have a draftsman, an interior designer, a general contractor, a business owner and an innovative artist. They all go by the same name: Phoebe Kimble.

Phoebe is one of the Mountain Arts Network’s newest members. Her works are on display at the group’s gallery on the lower level of Lake Arrowhead Village.