Commissions

Bight Patterns    Oil on canvas, 48 X 60     Collection, Columbine Country Club, Denver

Throughout the year, Ken is involved in a number of commissions for a variety of clients, private and public, across the country.

He was worked on sizes suitable for residences and as large as 6 x 18 feet for public spaces. 

His works have also been used in major motion pictures and TV productions.

Email Ken to begin the conversation or call 303-995-1611

6 x 18 ft continuous canvas commission for a prominent East Coast Hospital

Double commission for Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

For that special and unique artwork, consider Ken for your private and corporate commissions

Collections: partial listing

Hewlett Packard

Coopers and Lybrand                        

Kaiser-Permanente                    

Ritz Hotel, Denver

Four Seasons Hotel, Denver

St. Anthony's Hospital, Denver

Panhandle Eastern                   

National Dairy Board                

Grubb and Ellis, Denver

Marriott Hotels

Holland America Cruise Line

Stanford Cancer Center, Palo Alto

Tufts New England Medical Center

Pinnacol Denver Hospice, CO 

Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota

Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

Gaylord Rockies Resort & Conference

    Center Aurora, CO

Vail Mountain Club, Vail, CO

Yampa Valley Medical Ctr, Steamboat Springs, CO

Vectra Bank, CO

Blue Shield

Hitachi

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Glenmoor Country Club, Denver

Project Energy

  St. John’s Mercy Medical Center,

    Creve Coeur, MO

Rose Medical Center, Parker, CO

Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital,

     Grand Rapids, MI

Magnet Bank, Atlanta

Ford, Harrison Law, Atlanta

Lowry Medical Center, Denver

Town and Country Hospital, Houston

Jones and Keller, Denver

Raychem

Birch Hill Investment Advisors, Boston

Avista Hospital, CO

New Work: Evening Patterns, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches

Evening Patterns, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches
Saks Galleries, Denver  $12500. unframed

View the video

To begin, I followed my fascination with these delicate trees and the the limb patterns. A number of colors were initially blocked in and as the painting progressed, the blue/greens began to dominate.

Once the purples and pinks were added, the entire composition began to come together. It's not quite monochromatic and it's not really evening, but some condition between light and dark. I purposely left that bit of yellow light at the waters edge to help the composition and raise the question of how that can happen. And another question: Is that water?

Everything here is ambiguous by design. The painting just evolved that way and I followed it along, revealing some of the mysteries and leaving others. It's more satisfying that way, not knowing of everything in the forest.

New Work: Last Colors, pastel, 12 x 18 inches

Last Colors, pastel, 12 x 18 inches  $1350 framed
Exhibiting: Dominique Boisjoli Fine Art

This is all about a singular color and how to keep it interesting. I don't typically work monochromatically but the idea was to catch the greens lit up by a setting sun.

Everything was kept a bit rough at the edges so that the extra detail would add to the complexity. As the pastel progressed, the contrasting colors away from the sun looked best as red-browns and blue-greens. The harmonies were kept tight by using a minimum about of brights and darks.

I'm thinking all the pieces worked together successfully because my eye keeps circling around the pastel, taking it all in.

Grateful Notices: Winter Creek 30 x 40 oil

Winter Creek oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

Trees are a favorite theme of mine and in this work I combined then with a cold stream and winter trees in the background. Any foliage in the trees is barely apparent and the grass in the foreground is also understated. The composition is spare but not stark. That was the challenge and the joy of making this painting - just enough complexity to create the illusion of individual winter trees and others massed in a forest.

What little color there is alludes to the first hints of spring, leaving the patterns of winter to frame the cool blues and purples.

My sincere thanks to the buyers of this oil... I miss it already.

Grateful Notices: Iced Over

Iced Over, oil on canvas 36 x 48 inches
Private collection

This painting was a real adventure. First, it came from a photograph of a series of white buildings nestled into a valley. The composition intrigued me - it was the angle of the flat white rooftops nestled in the monochromatic valley.

I kept going back to it and eventually made a tiny sketch that converted these basic elements into a stream surrounded my blues.

The painting is about simplicity and sophistication, many colors reading as two.

I finished the canvas over a year ago, only seeing it again on occasion. Late last year I put it on the wall and immediately understood how to make it better. Complexity was added, then partially removed. Colors and contrasts were added and sometimes modulated down with grey to make the colors glow or to make more atmosphere.

In the end, it is a simple and inviting composition about light and dark, blues and whites. After working on it all this time and making hundreds of moves on it's surface, I'm convinced that it exists somewhere.

Grateful Notices: Yellows at the Creek IV

Yellows at the Creek

Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

Private collection, Houston, TX

This is an imaginary scene, first made as a pair of pastels. I wanted a composition that was a fall color surround with a glowing stream. In some earlier versions there was a whiter bit of sky at the top, but here I decided the stream would be the only source of bright light. As the oil proceeded I noticed a nice effect coming of the brush. It was something that created a soft surface in the grasses, so I kept with it and flattened the background trees a bit more. Still, the overall effect is softer than the other oil versions, more pastel-like and it accentuates the warm colors enveloping everything.

Pardon the less than optimal reproduction here. Now I have all my artworks shot professionally and the difference well worth the effort.

This painting was purchased as a birthday gift, a great honor.

Thank you!

Ken

Grateful Notices: Autumn Verticals commissioned oil on canvas

Commissioned work:
Autumn Verticals
Oil on canvas, 32 x 40 inches
Private collection, Seattle, WA

I always enjoy commission work. I am usually working with a new client that obviously likes what I do, so my job is to do my best work and thrill myself. If I am happy the client will likely feel the same way.

A commission is the opportunity to go further in any variety of ways, using a number of strategies to create a great, new work. More or less complex? More monochromatic or open the color up? Find ways to increase the drama? The studio is full of possibilities.

The client and I are excited about the possible outcome, that finished work on the wall. The entire process is a delicious one for me. A bit of risk on the high wire and the freedom to make something wonderful.

I did a larger version a year ago. This client wanted something close to that look but allowed me to try new things. So this time it's a bit of the aspens or birches without as many of the lighter tree trunk colors. The foreground trees are separated from the background in this version as well. It is less realistic, but this increased the contrast and depth. This separation freed the colors as well, allowing the vertical trunks to be rendered in a variety of deeper blues, purples, aquas and greens. The colors are almost like the paints sitting on the studio palette - a delight to see.

It was a bit sad to have it leave the studio where it had been entertaining me for weeks.

Thank you for placing it your lovely home!

Just Fun: The National Atlas Streamer Map

This photo traces Plum Creek near my home. That little stream flows all the way to New Orleans to get a jazz fix! So take a break and check this out - it's art, it's science and for those with inquiring minds.

The National Atlas Streamer Map
...something fascinating I saw posted at Fast Company Design web, and quoting from their site:

"Streams, like houses on city blocks, have addresses. They don’t have numbers, but the places they live are meticulously catalogued by the Department of the Interior. Their new interactive map Streamer is like Google Maps for creeks--click on any stream in the U.S. and make your way upstream to track its origin, downstream to discover where it deposits, or anywhere in between on its winding way.

The online exploration tool “allows people to learn a little bit about waters and outlets, and visualize the classic, ‘Drop a stick in a stream and see where it goes,’ idea,” says Jay Donnelly, editor of the National Atlas of the United States.

It took the National Atlas team 20 years to create the complete dataset of hydrology. The map makes clear two astounding feats of the country’s network of streams: The first, and more obvious, is the reminder that there’s an incredible amount of water flowing around us. The second is that streams travel extremely long and unpredictable distances. “I might think, based on my knowledge and geography, that when you are just a little bit outside Chicago everything is draining to Lake Michigan," Donnelly tells Co.Design, "when it actually drains into the Gulf of Mexico.” To wit, a huge swath of the map turns red when you visualize the tributaries in total pouring into the Mississippi River.

Donnelly envisions strengthening the map as it becomes a product of community input, building further topographical intelligence from feedback. “When MapQuest was built and introduced, it was very useful for going from point A to point B,” he says. “That was only the starting point. People wanted to add their own information. I think that’s where we’re at with Streamer.”

Streamer Map instructions:

After zooming in, select a trace button to Trace Downstream or Trace Upstream. Trace Downstream is selected by default when the application starts.


Click on a stream to trace it. View a summary of trace results in a pop-up window by hovering over the trace origin marker, a red circle. Click Clear Map to clear your trace and start over.


Click Trace Report to create a Summary Report or Detailed Report for your selected trace. Reports pop up as a new web page.

A map and a trace summary are included in the Summary Report (example). The Detailed Report (example) extends the Summary Report with an itemized list of hydrographic and political feature names that your trace intersects.