Biography

Born: May 27, 1918 in Keokuk, Iowa

Education: The School of The Art Institute of Chicago 1936-40, 1945-46.  BFA, MFA

Teaching: University of Southern California, Los Angeles 1946-83

Military Service WW II : Rank of Staff Sergeant, June 1941-July 1945.

Served in the South Pacific,  awarded Bronze Star, field correspondent for Yank Magazine

Artist Statement

Subject matter is a prime motivator and synthesizer of forces in my painting. I have painted huge city airports, a sink full of dishes, the rooftops of London, the mesas of New Mexico, the fields of the middle-west. I rarely paint in the confines of a studio, preferring to be in the presence of my subject material. I try to have a fresh or radical idea about each subject. Strong painters create new formal means out of the necessity to communicate their subjects. This has never been for me a superficial effort at a sort of photographic realism.

Like the American landscape painters John Marin and Charles Burchfield I try to make visible the invisible elements of nature: various wind, moisture, temperature, odors and sounds that are  specific to a particular place at a particular time.

Principal influences in my development were Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh,  and Henri Matisse. I also admire the works of Milton Avery, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and the American landscape painters John Marin and Charles Burchfield.

I was active in the California landscape painters group in the 1950’s. I was  President of the National Watercolor Society in 1959 and member of the Founding Board of Directors, Los Angeles chapter of Artist's Equity. I received a lifetime Achievement Award from the Watercolor USA Honor Society in 2003. In 2009 I received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Watercolor Society.

Collections

The Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University, Providence, RI

The Ackland Museumd, Chapel Hill, NC
Harwood Museum of Art , Taos, NM

Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO

The Gene Crain Collection of California Watercolors, Laguna Beach, CA

and others

All art presented is under copyright and belongs to the artist. Images may not be printed, downloaded or distributed in any fashion without express written consent by the artist, under penalty of law. Inquiries may be directed to keithcrownpaintings@mchsi.com