Artist StatementIn this series, Ken paints the Big Four Railroad Bridge, from the perspective of a human standing on the tracks, giving the viewer a sense of the scale and majesty of this beautiful structure. Thirty-seven men died during its construction in 1895, and the bridge was ignited in a conflagration of spilled coal in three separate disasters but was resurrected each time. Ken finds a haunting dignity in the rusted iron and hammered pins, and it is one of his favorite subjects. Ken's precise value accuracy and draftsmanship give the illusion of photorealism from viewing distance, but on closer inspection, the observer sees an expanded use of color, giving the paintings a richness and vibrancy that is sometimes lost in academic realism. His brush strokes are deceivingly loose, and color passages are broken and unblended. Ken uses clean colors complimented by more muted hues from the opposite side of the color wheel, an old master technique that sharpens and intensifies the primary passages in his paintings. "Painting elevates my mood and gives me energy, and I want my paintings to elevate the spirits of the viewer. Beautiful art conjures a feeling of transcendence, it's good for the brain, and over the centuries has been a vital antidote to the madness in the world." More About Ken...A commercial artist by training, Ken has had a lifelong love of realism, composition, and color. His self-training in fine art comes from decades wandering around the world's great museums, looking at beautiful oil paintings, and obsessing on the history of the medium and those who mastered it. Ken lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife Jenn and their old pup Bailey.