Posted by Curry S. on Jan 24th 2020
Featured Artist: Ken Gore
Ken Gore is an artist living and working in New York City. In 1983, after serving six years in the U.S. Air Force, Ken earned a bachelor’s in fine arts degree in painting at West Texas A&M University. He then went on to earn his master's degree in fine arts from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1985. Today, you can find him painting in Central Park, discussing art with his fellow artists, at live painting events, and in galleries.
Artist & Craftsman Supply: Who are you and what do you do?
Ken Gore: As a working artist, that can mean that I may have freelance work on designing catalogs, posters or illustrations. These gigs help fill in the financial gaps between painting sales or commissions. My work for the last 2 years for this one-person show has had me working long days into long nights.
A&C: Did you go to school for art/what is your background?
KG: I am an MFA graduate from UC Santa Barbara, California and a native Texan with a BFA from West Texas A&M University, in Canyon, Texas. While serving a six-year military stay in the US Air Force, I got the opportunity before college to study 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional design at Oxford Poly-Tech night school in the United Kingdom.
A&C: Do you have a favorite artist/piece of art?
KG: Picking a favorite artist is a hard thing to stay with since my nature is pretty eclectic. I love the work of Pissarro, Gauguin, Homer and Hockney. I like this painting by Winslow Homer. The orange and blues and central figure is really magic.
Winslow Homer | 1865 | The Veteran in a New Field | Oil on canvas
A&C: What drew you to art initially?
KG: My mother told me a story of how she found me one night under a bed sheet with a flashlight and a cigar box of broken crayons, I was about 4 years old. She elaborated that I had drawn on my entire bottom sheet with crayons and was perfectly content to go to sleep on my art. Art was always a part of me I guess, and I was always a part of art.
A&C: What is your go-to album/artist right now (in the studio)?
KG: This may sound strange to some people, but I prefer to not have music playing when I paint in the studio. Outdoors, plein air work, natural sounds of nature or people do not bother me at all. Painting in the studio, no music please.
A&C: What do you like most about Artist & Craftsman Supply?
KG: I have the best store in the world to shop at or just explore! The Harlem Artist & Craftsman Supply has like 8,000 square feet of art supplies. I can walk in, be greeted and asked if I need any assistance and just walk around looking for materials that inspire me, so very cool. The store has things I never have seen before. I give the sales team postcards of my shows and we talk art-techniques.
Ken Gore | Texas in Harlem | Oil on Panel
A&C: What’s one thing you can’t leave an art store without buying?
KG: I usually always leave with some oil paints and at least one brush. Ok, maybe some Gamsol paint thinner too. If canvas is on sale, I do not pass up a great sale.
A&C: How has your practice changed over time?
KG: Yes, things are always growing and changing. For instance, I now do “event painting”. For me it is an “indoor plein air.” I take the painting back to the studio after the event and finish it using the photos I take at the event. A real challenge also is I switch to acrylic paint to do event paintings.
Ken Gore | Bethesda Fountain | Oil on Linen Panel
A&C: What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given (not necessarily art related)?
KG: I had the good fortune to have lunch at George Rickey’s sculpture studio in Santa Barbara, CA., and I was graduating from grad school at UCSB when Mr. Rickey said” go east young man, the streets of New York City are paved with gold.” Maybe I arrived too late, but I have been watching the streets of NYC every time they dig up the streets…no gold yet.
A&C: What inspires you?
KG: I am a watcher of people and places. That includes the movement of light during the day. I also admire the everyday working person doing their job in a working environment. Recently, I am painting people who work in a butcher shop in my neighborhood.
Ken Gore | Meat, the Art of Harlem Shambles Collection
A&C: What is your favorite place to visit where you live?
KG: I live near the north end of Central Park and there you can find the Conservatory Gardens that I love to paint and just walk through all year long.
A&C: Where is your favorite place to paint Plein Air?
KG: I love to paint scenes in my neighborhood of Harlem. The older buildings and Morningside Park are my favorites to paint ala plein air. There are the most wonderful London Plane trees there. Saint John the Devine Cathedral towers above Morningside Park and is a landmark that I paint from the park that sits in a little valley.
Left: Ken Gore | Fruit Stand/116th St. | Oil on Linen Panel
Right: Ken Gore | Saint John the Devine/Last Night | Oil on Linen Panel