These paintings were done over a period of about 10 years. Like Ken's abstract drawings they show his transition from a flat, shallow frieze-like space to a more complex and deeper space. They also show a transition from geometric to more organic shapes. Most of these changes were not self-conscious, at least at the start. But as Ken looked at them he realized he was moving in a more naturalistic direction and so consciously expanded upon that.
Ken's earliest student paintings, not shown here, were largely about the process of painting.
They were full of paint drips,
large gestures, painterly experiments, etc. By the time he did 'Golfo di Melliflouso' at left most of that was gone.
In more recent paintings, e.g. 'Wissahickon', 'Ladder' and 'Idyll', he allowed
some more painterly qualities to return and to juxtapose themselves with more hard-edged shapes.
He also allowed some quasi-representational shapes to appear, e.g. the actual blue stream with rocks, in
'Wissahickon.' Given this continual representational movement in his paintings perhaps his move to thoroughly
representational work in his current paintings and drawings will seem less surprising.
Ken also realizes that the natural world does not exist in a vacuum. There is also the social and political world, sometimes offering a stark contrast to the natural world. Not a great fan of irony, 'Idyll' nonetheless is an ironic title. This painting was done at the time of a terrorist airplane hijacking that ended badly. That scene is represented in the upper left corner, in contrast to a more bucolic scene throughout the rest of the painting. His thought at the time was that though there may be beauty in art and in nature it's glaring occasional absence in the social world can't be ignored.
'Ladder', 72x96, oil.
'Derby Day, Derby Night', 72x96, oil.
'RooskieWooskie', 72x96, oil.
'Short Arthur's Oblique and Non-Stop Song', 72x96, oil.
'Wissahickon', 96x72, oil.
'Idyll', 72x48, oil.
