Letting the light play its impact on the natural setting is Kevin’s forte. Outback musters with the heat, dust and flies are all part of it. Most importantly in all his work he captures, with great detail, the light. Kevin says, “One of the best parts of being a landscape artist is the challenge of light. Not only light across gum trees, I grapple with light across the whole landscape!” It is the sunlight, filtered by thousands of trembling leaves that Kevin captures so well.
Kevin has great knowledge of his subjects, having travelled widely including much time spent in Australia’s high country. Here he has watched and sketched the brumbies, the annual muster, the cool running mountain streams. “Have you ever seen the bush after the rain? That special aroma of wet earth, native shrubs and damp bark, when the colours of the eucalypt trunks seem to fairly glow?” To Kevin this is magic stuff.
Born in Hamilton (Newcastle) NSW, 1932 Kevin as a child loved to draw. Now in Sydney he has been painting professionally since 1977. Kevin often casts his mind back to a favourite bush setting to draw inspiration. His artworks can be seen as Limited and Open edition prints, on biscuit tins, placemats, calendars and greeting cards. Whilst Kevin is semi retired, he has been working solidly on his second book, to be published in July 2007. This book, to be launched at Morpeth Gallery with an exhibition, will contain Kevin’s life, memoirs, poems, sketches, paintings, and is a guide to how he paints. It’s a legacy to future landscape artists, and will fulfil a lifelong dream for Kevin.
Kevin is self taught, although he feels the greatest teacher of art is nature. He is a unique individual and his paintings reflect the man.
