KK-Artist
Statement
I am drawn towards certain colours. Black, dark blues and purples when I am despondent - dark skies and stormy seas. Turquoise, yellows and violets when life is good - sunny flowers or beautiful rock faces. Whichever way, I sometimes have to make a conscious effort to leave the purples, light or dark depending on my state of mind, out of the painting. Very often I find I have used it, either straight from the tube - or when it has somehow mixed itself on the palette, and end up with that 'oh no, its happened again' feeling, perhaps similar to a dieter who has eaten a chocolate bar by accident.
I have experimented with all mediums but find oil the most versatile and gratifying. The process of mixing the colours into a buttery paste with linseed oil is as pleasurable as the laying down. I habitually build up texture onto the canvas with different media before applying the paint. This often produces remarkable and unexpected results.
I am more comfortable painting on big canvasses. Everywhere I look in the area that I live - the sea, trees or sky - I imagine a painting and wish time would stand still long enough for me to capture its splendour.
I have experimented with all mediums but find oil the most versatile and gratifying. The process of mixing the colours into a buttery paste with linseed oil is as pleasurable as the laying down. I habitually build up texture onto the canvas with different media before applying the paint. This often produces remarkable and unexpected results.
I am more comfortable painting on big canvasses. Everywhere I look in the area that I live - the sea, trees or sky - I imagine a painting and wish time would stand still long enough for me to capture its splendour.
Bio
Before then, I had only worked in acrylics doing the odd mural on walls wherever I happened to be living and one or two other paintings.
I have had no formal training other than a term at evening class. "That's fun" was the only feedback I ever got for my efforts.
I very nearly gave up, but was saved by some daffodils.
One night we were asked to do the dreaded daffodil still-life. I decided to use thick paint and a painting knife. It didn't work. "That's fun" says my teacher. I was scraping off the paint at the end of the evening so I could use the canvas again and a fellow student tells me to stop because it looks great.
After that, several friends and family saw them and were blown away.
At the same time I happened upon an old easel and half a roll of moth eaten canvas for a fiver.
My oil painting career began.
I still have 'Blow' - one of my first and favourite oil paintings - framed and hung in pride of place in my sitting room.
Like most artists I suppose, I am constantly striving for that same reaction, compliment, look of suspended disbelief.
My paintings now mostly reflect my mood, and I can't help but be inspired by my beautiful surroundings in Cornwall .
E-mail me at kk@kk-artist.com
Sunflowers. Oil on canvas, applied thickly with painting knife, 1m x 1m
Blow. Oil on canvas with painting knife, approx 40cm x 40cm.
