John Kingerlee
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John Kingerlee
"Landscape with Figure"
Oil on board, 11¾” x 11¾”
"Landscape with Figure"
Oil on board, 11¾” x 11¾”
John Kingerlee was born in Birmingham in 1936. He originally lived in Cornwall and worked in horticulture and only decided to pursue painting full-time in 1962. His first solo exhibition was held at the Ewan Phillips Gallery in London in 1967. He later moved with his wife to the Beara peninsula in West Cork, Ireland where he still lives to this day. In 1988 he converted to Islam, and since then he travels regularly to Morocco to improve his Arabic and also to paint.
According to the artist, his densely textured abstract paintings are an attempt to uncover and capture the unity that underlies all things. He has always considered himself a non-conformist as an artist, avoiding the commercial art gallery scene and working in isolation in his studio. His paintings are also non-conformist, with a complete absence of scientific perspective, which he sees as an artificial construct. His paintings are instead an attempt to portray a multi-sensory engagement with nature, often using his own ground pigments, which are applied in a very hands-on way in order to capture every element of the ever-changing landscape.
Although he mostly avoids the trappings of the commercial art world, this has not hindered the popularity of his paintings, which have been exhibited in Ireland, England and the United States and have also achieved high prices at international art auctions held by Sothebys and Christies.
According to the artist, his densely textured abstract paintings are an attempt to uncover and capture the unity that underlies all things. He has always considered himself a non-conformist as an artist, avoiding the commercial art gallery scene and working in isolation in his studio. His paintings are also non-conformist, with a complete absence of scientific perspective, which he sees as an artificial construct. His paintings are instead an attempt to portray a multi-sensory engagement with nature, often using his own ground pigments, which are applied in a very hands-on way in order to capture every element of the ever-changing landscape.
Although he mostly avoids the trappings of the commercial art world, this has not hindered the popularity of his paintings, which have been exhibited in Ireland, England and the United States and have also achieved high prices at international art auctions held by Sothebys and Christies.