"Nothing To Crow About"



"Road to Indianford"

"Road to Indianford"

Chester's Place

 

"Chesters Place"   

  Two more watercolors done this winter in southeast Arizona.  Both were accepted into belleza fine art gallery, Bisbee AZ

"San Pedro House"
I recently returned from Arizona where I was fortunate to be accepted into the belleza fine art gallery.  This painting of an old ranch managers home along the San Pedro River quickly sold.

Ken

Ken Marsden BIO

Eighty-plus year old watercolor artist Ken Marsden likes to say he is self-taught but that is not completely true.  Early family inspiration from an artist brother and aunt in the picturesque and historic town of Galena, Illinois provided a good start to a multi-faceted and interesting life.  During those teen years he was taken under the wing of Chicago artist and printer Gordon Martin.  Jammed packed into that life were later stints in both the US Army and Navy.  Also along the way was an intensive course in engineering drafting that propelled him into six  years as a design draftsman, illustrator and cartoonist.  With that behind him he found time to get a business degree from the University of Illinois where as a student he worked as a draftsman in the University Architect's Office and also illustrated Professor Beberman's newly developed "New Math" text books.   The university degree led to top marketing and management jobs in several national corporations, including one he founded.  Now, for 21 years he has focused on studying art and demonstrating his fresh, straight-forward approach to watercolor painting.

Ken Marsden Artist Statement

My paintings are a simple interpretation of the beautiful world God has given us to enjoy.  My desire is to create paintings that allow the viewer a moment of peace, however brief - perhaps trigger a pleasant memory.

I paint, with rare exception, in a traditional transparent watercolor style, i.e. I use no white paint and rely on the whiteness of the paper.  My palette utilizes limited color.  My work is fairly realistic but intentionally falls short of depicting precise detail.

I hope you enjoy it,

Merry Christmas!

Ken

"Winter"

Thanks for looking!

Ken

"Whitewater Rafting on the Menominee"

Ken

"Dunlap Square"

Marinette, WI

Ken

 

"Sunny Road"

Ken

"Rock Bridge"

My rock bridge painting won the Blue Ribbon (First Prize) at the current exhibit at the Rahr_ West Art Museum in Manitowac Wisconsin.

Ken

"Galena - 9 21 15"

Another Galena, Illinois memory

Sketches made in preparation for the studio painting below.  They were matted and framed separately for an upcoming Water's Edge Artists show at the Rahr-West Art Museum in Manitowac, Wisconsin.  

My bird bath has a history. My maternal grandmother's brother, Fred Holtz and his wife Lou acquired this bird bath.  I think it must have been in the 1920's.  They dreamed of having a home of their own and bought a lot near Gear Street in Galena, Illinois and placed the bird bath on the lot.  On summer nights they would walk to their lot and dream of the house they would build there.

They died never having their dream home.  The bird bath passed to my family and was placed on their property near Franklin Street in Galena.  I grew up there and when my aunt Florence Kastner died she left the bird bath to me with the understanding that I would take good care of it.  It is cast iron and very heavy but I have moved it with me to Wisconsin,Texas, Massachusetts and back to Wisconsin.  I have never seen a bird bath so loved by birds.  I often wonder how many thousands of Robins have bathed in it.

I see an identical one near the old waterworks building in Menominee, Michigan.

Ken

                                                               
 "Lone Fisherman"
It is getting difficult to wade my favorite trout streams but I can still paint my memories.

Check out www.kenmarsden.com

I value all comments!

Ken

North Country Hollyhock

I once watched a video of a  lady demonstrating  how to paint a rose.  She stated it wasn't necessary to paint exactly what you see .  Rather she said "paint the most beautiful rose in the world".  In contrast, I painted this poor hollyhock.  It had been eaten by a deer but struggled to make a comeback though battered by the wind off the Bay of Green BaY.

I thought it deserved to be painted.

Ken

"Smalley Falls"

Watercolor 5292015

Thanks for looking!

www.kenmarsden.com

"A Galena Memory"

Ken

Thinking of Spring and Summer

Ken