You might expect artist Paul Kenneth, whose new show is lush with whimsical renderings of dogs and horses, to be smitten with the two creatures.
You would be wrong.
“I’m not really a dog person,” Kenneth said. “I love cats. And horses kind of scare me.”
But he loves to draw them.
The long history of the relationship between dogs, horses and humans stretching back to ancient times drew his curiosity and his creativity.
“You go back to cave paintings, petroglyphs and hieroglyphs — the oldest art form is over 100,000 years ago,” said the Longmont-based artist. Kenneth also teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder and Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. “They find remnants of artistic practice and often they’re depicting things around them and the animals they’re interacting with.”
His new exhibit, “Dog & Pony,” will open with a free reception from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday at Galleries of Contemporary Art at University of Colorado Colorado Springs. It’s up through July 20.
Kenneth’s show features prints, paintings, drawings and sculptures that all revolve around horses and dogs, including “Hold Your Horses,” a 40-inch by 50-inch graphite on canvas piece of about 1,000 small, whimsical drawings of horses that sometimes don’t even look much like horses. Inspired by that piece, he recently finished a similar work with about 2,000 fanciful drawings of dogs. It took him two years.
His ideas for the multitude of creatures come in many ways, through historical references, like 1700 European paintings; cartoons; or dogs he sees on the street. Some of it is based on the space on the canvas he needs to fill.
“My imagination is a fascinating place that most people don’t get to experience except in my art,” he said. “A lot is thinking up different personalities or starting with a mark and seeing what that mark wants to be, what kind of dog that wants to be.”
Kenneth’s devotion to horses began while he went through a master’s program in Illinois. He tussled with the question of whether he was a good artist, what it meant to be a good artist, and if that meant being able to draw a basic thing from memory. He decided a horse would be a good thing to test his skills, and noticed the more of them he drew the quirkier they got. When he moved to Colorado, where many professional artists prefer to paint a traditional version of a horse, they looked at his work and told him they were no good.
“I said I like that,” Kenneth said. “You don’t like how I draw these things because they’re not often anatomically correct or done in a way that is heroic or beautiful. It became fun. I have this one thing and it’s the only thing I’m allowed to use for a subject, but there are other ways I can play with it. It became a fun vessel I could put all my thoughts and artistic exploration into.”
Contact the writer: 636-0270
Contact the writer: 636-0270
