KENNETH L. GRANT

Born: 1938, Klamath Falls, Oregon

EDUCATION

Advertising Art School, Portland, OR
Museum Art School, Portland, OR

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Anatomy Instructor, Advertising Art School, Portland, OR
Instructor, Bassist Fashion Institute, Portland, OR

EXHIBITIONS

ONE MAN SHOWS

GROUP SHOWS

ARTIST STATEMENT

Through the many years that I have been showing my work I have received numerous compliments and comments that have convinced me that I have accomplished with my work what I intended. At one of my openings a woman told me that she loved the way I took ordinary objects and made them into something grand.

Another collector of my work remarked that my paintings "massaged her soul", each painting in a different way. Bill Murray, the owner of the gallery where I have been showing successfully for the past 16 years, refers to the musical quality of my work, which is understandable given the importance of music in my life. I see a link between my love for romantic music and what appears on my canvases.

Royal Nebeker, head of the art department at Clatsop Community College invited me to present a one man show. One of the students seeing my work described me as a realist. Mr. Nebeker disagreed, pointing out that I don't paint strict realism but look at the world in a romantic way, giving me the label "romantic impressionist". I feel that label fits.

What I ultimately hope to accomplish with my work is to draw the viewer into the painting, to feel the light and space and evoke a distant memory. I would like my paintings to trigger a pleasant emotional response, much like the way the scent of a daphne blossom can take you back to a particular warm spring afternoon on the porch of your parents house when you were young. When you view my paintings I want you to actually feel the warmth of the sunlight as it streams through the window, pouring into the room and caressing the objects therein.

You often see the sea in my paintings. I have strong feelings for the sea having lived on the ocean in Cannon Beach, Oregon for many years of my life. One is drawn outward by the infinite expanse to the horizon, the ocean breeze, the sound of the gulls in the distance. Open the doors and windows of the old beach house on the first day of the season, letting in the sun bringing the house to life.

If my paintings affect you sensually as well as visually I feel they will become as an old friend, recalling fond memories. What makes a painting great is between the viewer and the painting. If it moves you and makes you want to take it into your life, it is a great painting.

BIOGRAPHY

Ken Grant has lived in Oregon all his life, born in Klamath Falls in 1938. He grew up in Portland, and from 1956 to 1962 studied at the Advertising Art School (where during his last three years he taught drawing and anatomy). From 1969 to 1970 he further honed his skills in drawing and sculpture at the Museum Art School (now Pacific Northwest College of Art).

In 1958 he began a long career in retail store window and interior display, first for Bedell's Department Store until 1964, then for Nordstrom where he was Director of Display and Interior Design of the three Portland area stores. Leaving Nordstrom in 1967 he began a successful business as a freelance display artist and retail store designer. From 1968 to 1970 he also taught visual merchandising at the Bassist Fashion Institute.

During the summer of 1960 he and a friend from art school opened an art gallery in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Having fallen in love with the Oregon coast, in 1972 he moved with his wife and two sons back to Cannon Beach to spend more time on his art and built a permanent home and studio there. As this small town was now becoming known as an artist enclave, Grants' drawings and sculpture were being exhibited in several galleries in Cannon Beach and Portland.

In 1975 he and several other local artists founded the Winter Gallery in Portland to have an outlet for their work in the coast's off season. In 1976, one of his drawings "Life Size Self Portrait Paper Doll" was the feature piece in the "Works on Paper" exhibit at the Portland Art Museum and in 1982 a book of his drawings, "The Nude" was published.

Along the way he has done numerous illustrations for books, magazines, greeting cards and advertisements. In 1982 he moved to the Portland area, where he increasingly concentrated on painting. By 1994 he had become an artist full time.