Kaffe Fassett may be one of the most inspired — and inspiring — artists in the world. Big Sur-born and bred, the internationally renowned designer lives, eats, breaths and drinks creativity, transforming all he sees into magical creations on the clicking tips of his knitting needles or from the sable ends of his watercolor brushes.

On Jan. 3, Besant Hill School of Happy Valley will present an evening with Kaffe at The Marjorie Luke Theatre. Three one-day “Color in Design” workshops will follow, each one offering another way of working (or playing) with color.

Kaffe, 72, finds inspiration everywhere and invites others to do the same, whether it be a lichen-covered rock, a pot of red geraniums against a pink windowsill or the tattered layering of gaudy Broadway posters on an old Greenwich Village wall.

He is often asked about his “color theory.” “Look out the window,” he said. “Analyze what makes something sing, and then jump in and swim for your life.”

From paintings, sweaters, tapestries and ceramics to mosaics, quilts and fabrics, his works have influenced millions of people. Designers and craftspeople alike keep his books on their coffee tables as references for art projects and daily inspiration, and crowds throng to his slide shows and lectures. All this for a man who started his career as a knitter, a domestic craft hardly considered an art form until Kaffe came along.

Born in San Francisco in 1937, Kaffe and his four siblings moved to Big Sur in the 1940s. To feed their growing brood and the never-ending parade of guests, his parents, Lolly and Bill Fassett, built the now legendary Nepenthe Restaurant — still family-owned and run to this day.

Kaffe credits his passion for color and pattern to his mother, Lolly, and his Big Sur childhood.

“Big Sur was absolutely remote. We made our own entertainment, running down to the beach … making costumes out of old sheets,” he recalled. “My mother was really a frustrated artist. She had collections of Asian art, fabric, little things from Japan. She would take us (kids) up to the city and drag us around antique shops and places with gorgeous things. Eventually when I started doing textiles, it was just a natural.”

A creative turning point came in Kaffe’e early teens when he attended Happy Valley School in Ojai. Now called Besant Hill School at Happy Valley, the school introduced Kaffe to myriad art forms, including Ukranian folk dancing.

“We embroidered our own costumes,” he recalls, and the traditional dances he brought back to Big Sur caught on with Nepenthe’s staff and guests alike, inspiring the dancing in the 1965 Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton film The Sandpiper.

Awarded the Salamagundi Prize in Painting, Kaffe went off to art school in Boston, followed by a trip to England where his life took yet another turn. In London, he met Scottish designer Bill Gibb and soon was on a train to Scotland’s woolen mills. The trip was a revelation. Kaffe recalls passing “through bracken, heath, old world peat bogs. And when we got to the mill there were all those very colors. I thought, ‘Has the world gone mad?’ No one was using color in knitting then — it was all beige on beige.” He bought 20 skeins of yarn and asked a woman on the train back to London to teach him how to knit.

Kaffe’s confidence brought him to Vogue’s door with his first rough garment. A feature with the magazine led to work with Missoni. Knitting led to needlepoint. Commissions flooded in. His first book, Glorious Knitting, sold 40,000 copies in the first two weeks and continues to bring Kaffe’s message of color and pattern to the world.

For all his successes, his connection with his roots is enduring. In the summer of 1998, Kaffe returned to Happy Valley School to create a colorful mosaic for the school’s newly built theater. Working with handmade tiles donated by a local potter, shells and broken dishes from Kaffe’s own collection, Kaffe and crew set out a whimsical pattern evoking the draperies of curtains surrounding a stage setting. Working in 100-degree heat with midday breaks for lunch and a dip in the river, they finished the project in less than four days.

Just reading his schedule is exhausting, but Kaffe is energized by his work, and endlessly encouraging young people to pick up a brush — or a set of needles — themselves. “Art is so deeply satisfying,” he said. “You’ll never regret going into it. It’s a way of making sense of your life.”

During a recent slide show, images ranged from a four-story quilt in Friesland to a mosaic wall in Scotland to a knitted cardigan for Peruvian Connection. “People are a bit confused about my career, because I do so many different types of art-making,” Kaffe said with a laugh, pausing between slides. “But in a way, I do what I’ve always done. It’s always been about color. And color can transform your life.”

On Jan. 3, Kaffe will speak about his life in the arts at the Marjorie Luke Theatre, 721 E. Cota St., at Santa Barbara Junior High School. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m for a trunk show, with a lecture and slide show at 7 p.m. The one-day “Color in Design” workshops follow.

Click here for more information about the events or to register.

— Erin Lee Gafill represents Studio One in Big Sur.