Full SLOPOKE Art Book for 2023

KEN CHRISTENSEN
Ghost Ranch, 40x30, Acrylic on Canvas
Ken is a multi-talented artist who paints,
writes novels, publishes letters, and is
the founder of The New Fauves (www.
newfauves.com) a collection of artists
working in a style similar to the early
20th Century French avant-garde artists
who broke with Impressionism with their
emphasis on painterliness and strong
color. Raised in Flint, Michigan, Ken began
his career as a freelance watercolorist in
Traverse City, but then moved to Europe,
soon settling in Paris fwhere he began
painting with oils. He became an official
copyist of the Louvre Museum and
learned by working with other artists in
Paris, notably Spanish inversionist Manuel
Gil and American realist Frank Bruckmann.
Back in the USA, he split his time
between Santa Fe, NM and Petoskey, MI.
In 1999, he moved to San Luis Obispo
and began painting local land- and seascapes
in a fauvist style. Ken glorifies the
mundane to show the beauty about us. By
exaggerating colors and simplifying forms,
he shocks the viewer to see things with
fresh eyes. His paintings are a delight to
the eye, rich in thick and colorful paint
providing the allure of an art object, fresh
with views and sights that others overlook.
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