In this episode of Mountain Mule Media, Tim sits down with Allie Louise, a pastel artist based in Livingston, Montana. Allie shares how she went from a pre-med path to becoming a full-time artist — blending the structure of her athletic and academic background with the freedom of creative expression.
🎧 Listen to Episode 52
From Medicine to Pastel
Before she ever picked up a pastel stick, Allie was on her way to medical school. A lifelong athlete with a strong type A personality, she was used to schedules, structure, and high expectations. But during COVID, a moment of uncertainty opened the door to something new.
While visiting her then-boyfriend’s family in Kansas City, she met his mother, a fiber artist who encouraged her to explore creativity. “She told me years earlier that I wasn’t going to be a doctor — that I was going to be an artist,” Allie recalls. “At the time, I laughed. But looking back, she was right.”
What started as curiosity quickly turned into obsession. Allie taught herself the hands-on process of soft pastel, using chalk-like pigment and her fingertips to blend color and light into lifelike scenes. From a distance, her work looks like a photograph — up close, each piece reveals thousands of individual pastel marks, a quiet record of patience and precision.
Discipline, Detail, and Devotion
Allie’s athletic background still shows up in her art today. Her days begin before dawn — often at 3 a.m. — when the world is still quiet. “That’s my time,” she says. “It’s peaceful. My mind finally slows down.”
Her subjects often reflect that same stillness and attention to detail. Saddles, horses, and Western life fill her canvases — not because of nostalgia, but because they represent connection, trust, and hard-earned craftsmanship. “I didn’t grow up with horses,” she explains. “But I’ve always been drawn to them. They can sense people before you even touch them. That kind of awareness fascinates me.”
Allie’s philosophy as an artist is simple: create for love, not for sale. “When I stopped painting for the purpose of selling and started painting what inspired me, everything changed,” she says. “If it sells, great. If it doesn’t, I get to keep something I love.”
You can view and purchase Allie’s work at allielouiseart.com, or see it in person at Mountain Trails Gallery in Bozeman and Two Rivers Gallery in Big Timber.
Mountain Mule Media is a production of Mountain Mule Transportation, connecting Montana’s people, businesses, and stories.
