KENNY MCKENNA |
Completion of McKenna's first oil painting was in 1966 during his third year of high school art instruction. For two decades following, painting was for self enjoyment while he traveled from coast to coast and gig to gig as a musician with rhythm and blues bands. Gradually, painting grew from diversion to career. Working exclusively in oil, McKenna strives to capture the feel of the landscape by location painting, quick sketches, and photographing with the finished piece completed in his studio. Whether painting the vastness of the Grand Canyon, the Arizona desert, Monument Valley, the Rocky Mountains, or a sunset on the Great Plains, his objective is to create a piece that comes together by knowing what to paint in and what to leave to a viewer's imagination. McKenna's work metamorphosed from a romanticized style to translation of the subject in a natural, looser "as it is" style. His passion, determination, and persistence have been rewarded with invitations to several annual shows as well as in collections of T. Boone Pickens and baseball great Nolan Ryan. March/April 2005, Art of the West feature |