Author: Curator

• Duet Night
• Three Virtuosos

Charles Lee is a diverse, multi-talented artist with the capability of creating various forms of art, from pencil-drawn portraits to tranquil landscapes, arresting abstracts, and serene musicians.

Lee gained a following in the 1970s when exhibiting in Hong Kong and Tokyo, and in the 1980s his popularity soared when his art reached the United States. Lee’s ability to capture femininity and the spirit of music in three different styles makes him a sought-out artist around the world.

 

Personal History

Growing up in Seoul, Korea, Lee began showing an affinity for art at the young age of 7. However, Lee’s father did not approve of his interest in art, so Lee would hide in order to draw. In high school, he received his first official artistic honor—a gold medal in an international competition. Lee recalls bringing awards for his art home and his father destroying them.

“I have had many hardships as an artist, but nothing has been able to stop me. As long as I have life in me, I will paint,” Lee says.

Despite his father’s admonishments, Lee went on to major in art at university. He held his first show at the age of 23.

In the 1970s, Lee exhibited in group shows in Hong Kong and Tokyo. He presented his second solo exhibition at the Tae Yoon and Man Kang galleries in Seoul, bringing him wider acclaim.

During the 1980s, while employed at the Gaius Art Studio, many of Lee’s works were introduced to the United States. Lee subsequently arrived in the United States in 1991 and worked with a Miami wholesaler of fine art.

Today, Lee shows his true talent and versatility as an artist. His art reflects his uncompromisingly high standards. He resides in Florida with his wife and two children. His daughter, Jana, is an artist in her own right, inspired by her father’s encouragement to pursue art. Alongside their own art, Charles and Jana create paintings together.

Style and Influences

Lee embraces oils, watercolors, and acrylics. He also has a penchant for painting with a bright, eye-catching palette(including gold foil) that demonstrates his keen sense of color. Yet in spite of such vibrant imagery he presents his subjects in a calm and reflective—almost ethereal—way.

Lee primarily paints in three distinct styles. The first is a classical, representational style with notes of romanticism. The second is a contemporary naïve style noted for its simplicity and flat expressions. His backgrounds are colorful planes harkening to Cubism, showing a mastery of defining space. A third, purely abstract style emerged as well. Of his styles, Lee prefers his modern approach, believing it instills his subjects with more life.

His low-relief and richly textured mixed media compositions are accomplished through the use of Gesso, giving his artwork the illusion of emerging from the canvas.

Recurring Themes

Lee reveals a knowledge and fascination with Roman, Greek, and Egyptian architecture. His frequent use of columns recalls classical Greek and Roman history.

“I want people to be there…to be inside of this period in time…inside those beautiful buildings,” Lee says.

Music plays an important role in Lee’s life and work. The subjects of his art are often seen playing instruments in serene settings. Lee’s wife and many of his family members are musicians, inspiring him to experiment with musical themes. The positive reaction from collectors encouraged him to pursue this theme throughout his career.

The artist is also interested in exploring the dimensions of the female form, traditionally set against neo-classical backdrops such as palaces or mansions. He sees his women as neither totally Eastern nor Western, but a new ethnicity only existing in his mind.

Magali au Bouquet

Linda Le Kinff was the official artist for both the 1998 World Cup and the 2010 Kentucky Derby. She studied multiple techniques around the world, combining everything from traditional painting to engraving and tempera to form her own unique style.

Her portrayal of women is consistently dynamic, ranging from indescribable loneliness to silent, powerful, and elegant. Le Kinff also finds inspiration in the work of Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, and Gustav Klimt.

LE KINFF: PERSONAL HISTORY

Linda Le Kinff was born in Paris in 1949 to French and Brazilian parents. She started her career as a painter at the age of 20. In the 1970s, she traveled to India, Tibet, Mexico, and Italy.

Le Kinff lived and worked in Italy for 12 years, learning the ancient techniques of tempera, egg painting, and the gold leaf method taught by masters in Florence and Livorno. She also served an apprenticeship in wood engraving, copper engraving, and excelled in learning the modern techniques of acrylic and airbrush painting.

In Paris, in 1975, Le Kinff learned lithography, meeting the artists Brayer, Corneille, and Lapique. In 1976, she met Okamoto Taro, the “Japanese Picasso,” who introduced her to the sand and sumi technique. In 1981, she spent six months in Morocco where she worked with Chabia, the poetess of the naive abstraction movement.

Le Kinff returned to school in South Tyrol where she became interested in creating painted, polished and varnished woodwork, using a special material made of casein. She applied it to her paintings and continues to use this technique today but still employs her traditional approach of painting in acrylic on canvas as well. She began to create serigraphs in the mid-1980s and excels in the technique.

LE KINFF: STYLE AND INFLUENCES

When it comes to choosing her favorite artistic techniques, Linda Le Kniff struggles. She explains that each technique and medium depends greatly on her subject matter and she pulls from all her experiences to project the essence of what she’s painting.

When she lived in Italy, however, Le Kniff found a rare passion in painting on wood paneling, and it became one of her favorite media. Italy is the place where she truly found herself as a painter and her memories from that time are especially fond.

Le Kinff also expresses herself through watercolors or, more precisely, a mixing of greasy pastels, ink, and watercolor. She works without a model and her inspiration comes from travel, her dreams, reading, and her imagination.

More recently, her color palette has been inspired by Japan and the Scandinavian countries. Each place has its own unique set of colors and Le Kniff tries to carry this throughout her work.

Her subjects are extremely diverse and include musical scenes, poetic interpretations of people caught in an intimate moment of their lives, and couples elegantly dressed, out for a night on the town. She has fallen deeply in love with attending the circus, especially Cirque du Soleil, inspired by the amazing flexibility and movement of the performers.

She also often includes an image of a black cat in her works, sitting near the edge of the composition. When asked, the artist expressed that the cat is there for graphic purposes, balancing the colors and composition of her work. It pulls together the black hair of the women in her paintings and provides a point of reference for the other shapes.

Le Kinff’s studio is her haven. With memories of places she’s traveled posted on the walls, she is able to focus and find her creativity. Rising early in the morning, Le Kniff will work until 6 p.m. in solitude, enjoying her quiet moments to think.

Her influences include the hidden sensuality of Braque, the masterful drawing of Matisse, the elegance of Modigliani, and the precocious maturity of Egon Schiele.

 

LINDA LE KINFF: ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In 1998, Linda Le Kinff was selected as the Official World Cup Artist and exhibited in the cities where the matches took place: Montpellier, Saint-Denis, Nantes, Marseille, Toulouse, and Lyon.

For that distinction, she created a painting that was minted into a commemorative coin by the French Government, an honor never before offered to a living French artist. The medallion was exhibited at the prestigious museum, the Monnaie de Paris, where French Nemaic has been minted since the 15th century and the Euro since 1999.

In 2002, Le Kinff participated in the “Exposition of Prestige,” organized by the Ambassador of France in Japan, and her work was exhibited in museums and art foundations in Japanese cities, including the Tokyo-Bunkamura Museum, the Nagoya-Tenjin Salaria Art Foundation, the Osaka-Kirin Foundation, the Fukuoka-Loft Gallery, and the Yokohama-RedBrick-Warehouse.

In 2008, a catalog raisonné of Linda Le Kinff’s graphic works was published by Park West Gallery with an introduction by art historian, essayist, art critic and curator for several museums, Joseph Jacobs.

Le Kinff was honored to be the official artist of the 2010 Kentucky Derby, featuring her artwork on posters, prints, tickets, racing programs, and officially licensed products for the 136th Kentucky Oaks and Derby. She challenged herself by painting horses for the first time, a brand new subject which incorporated the Winners’ Circle and the guests of the Derby.

Le Kinff has been working with Park West for more than 25 years, and in that time, she has become engrained in the Park West family, enjoying every moment she has spent with her collectors and other artists

September’s Song

Pat McManus has been painting wildlife and landscapes since the mid-1980s and has received many awards for his work. His paintings are also featured in many distinguished collections.

Pat is very meticulous about the preparation and execution of any piece he undertakes. He is an avid photographer who spends innumerable hours in the field carefully studying and recording reference material for future subjects. His paintings are the result of careful observation and diligent efforts and feature meticulous detail and exceptional technical mastery.

Pat’s artwork is best known for its ability to convey the mood, beauty, and energy of the animals and landscapes he delights in portraying. The artist strives to bring to his paintings the same sense of wonder he felt when he first encountered the animal or location used in the painting. He portrays the animals he depicts in their natural environments, the same way a portrait painter references the portrait’s subject to reflect the character or personality of the sitter. His most recent expedition was to paint the wildlife in Alaska.

Pat and his wife, Mary, reside in Michigan, with their three children. Pat’s most recent awards include the Grand Prize in the 2009 Paint the Parks Competition hosted by Paint America and being selected as one of the “Mini 50” winners in the Paint America competition.

• Silent Stalker
• African Mystique

Artist and conservationist Andrew Bone captures the wildlife and landscapes of his native Africa through his exciting, photo-realistic artwork. Bone was born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1957. It was during his studies at Falcon College – a bush school for boys aged 12-18 in Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia) – that his deep love and respect for African wildlife began.

After graduation, Bone completed a mandatory assignment in the National Service, fighting in the Rhodesian war. It was during his service that he was first introduced to Zimbabwe’s Zambezi Valley, which would become an integral part of his life. The valley is home to many species of animals, including lions, elephants, hippopotami, impalas, zebras, and buffalo. When a friend established a canoeing company in the valley, Bone became a guide, helping visitors explore and experience all that the valley had to offer. During his time here he studied and photographed his surroundings endlessly.

Upon marrying his sweetheart and fellow nature-lover, Kelly, in 1986, Bone relocated to the Imire Game Ranch – also in Zimbabwe. It was here that Bone began to paint, completely self-taught, using the creatures that surrounded him as inspiration. His work became popular with local art galleries, and he soon became an artist full-time, dedicating his free time to wildlife conservation and fundraising.

Bone, his wife and three daughters live in a forest in the mountains of southern Africa. His studio is the hub of the house, filled with parts for his Land Rover and lawn mower, jaw bones from animals, hyena skulls, and dog collars. His workshop is very organized with everything at his disposal, which may come to his detriment, becoming the supply closet of his home. Although everyone seems to congregate in his studio, it still remains his refuge. Bone explains that his life in Africa is very full and always busy.

As a conservationist first and an artist second, Bone prefers to spend all of his time in the bush. The relationship between the two careers is a happy one. Bone explains that he cannot have one without the other, and he’s very pleased the way it’s worked out. To him, painting is a way to spread his message of conservation and introduce people all over the world to the species of Africa.

He also uses his art as a fundraising tool, establishing the Forever Wild Foundation, where 100% of funds raised go directly to the wildlife. Missions like, dealing with P.A.C. (problem animal control) and the general conservation of the species of Africa are important to Bone. His efforts are intensely focused on conservation, his photo-realistic style is a wonderful means to an end. Bone’s technique begins with his camera. Packing his Land Rover for the day, he goes into the wild, photographing everything – an entire spectrum of flora and fauna. He claims that he’s as excited to study a dung beetle as he is a charging herd of elephants. Each species relies upon the next and this gives him inspiration. Once Bone is back in his studio, he begins with one photograph but finds his inspiration on the easel. He does not copy a photo precisely but maintains the acute anatomy of each species. Each animal is exactly as it would be in the wild.

While Bone occasionally runs into some trouble outdoors, he wouldn’t have it any other way. He’s had to dissect giraffes and shoot animals when they were injured or overpopulated. He’s woken up to lions breathing over him, been chased up a tree by a buffalo, and tipped out of a canoe by a hippopotamus. “It’s an interesting life,” he says. Although he’s seen many good friends killed in the bush, he claims he’d rather become “hyena bait” than spend his last days in a wheelchair. “Don’t paint it unless you’ve studied it, been chased by it, or done something to save it,” he says.

There are no shortcuts in his paintings. Each can take between three and four weeks to complete, and he loves working. Never able to sit still, Bone feels like it’s therapeutic to portray a subject he loves so much. But more importantly, when his clients enjoy his art, his mission is successful. So many of his clients had never dreamed of collecting wildlife art and now they have dedicated safari rooms.

As a general rule, Bone will only paint the species of Africa. He’ll be requested to paint wolves or black bears – American wildlife animals – but will decline. He says that there are many great American wildlife artists and he wouldn’t attempt to paint something he hasn’t studied before. “You must paint what you know,” he says, “and if you don’t know it, don’t paint it.” He calls himself a “control freak” and enjoys making all of his decisions from where he’s going to travel to which photos he takes and which subjects he ultimately paints. Then it goes straight to the gallery, ultimately ending up in the client’s hand, who Bone will be able to meet. “Park West’s clients are very large and diverse,” he says, and this variety in tastes and experiences, to Bone, is the perfect way to introduce his ideas in conservation.

His work is collected by art and animal lovers around the world. The book by the artist, “Brush Strokes of Africa,” includes heartwarming and amusing anecdotes from his journey through life, along with numerous reproductions of his oil paintings and sketches.