Kenneth Draper RA
Moonlight
49 x 44
cm
Oil and pigment on wood
“Draper’s refusal to follow any minamalistic or didactic extreme has allowed him more freedom to develop than his contemporaries. It has also left unhindered his responsiveness to place”
Frances Spalding writing in Contemporary Art magazine.
Born in 1944 in Yorkshire, the son of a coal miner, his early years drew on the experience of the extremes of the northern industrial landscape where the effects of mining and steelworks were enclosed by the rugged moorlands of Derbyshire and Yorkshire.
Over the years he has travelled widely, constantly enriching his vision by exploring the landscapes of India and Pakistan, East Africa, the canyons and deserts of South West America, Egypt and the intricate terrain of the island of Menorca where he now lives.
Kenneth Draper has recently returned to his original medium, sculpture. He has, throughout his career, concentrated on both. At different periods one medium has had ascendancy over the other, each informing and consolidating an interest in landscape. It was throughout the 1990's that he became increasingly well known as a painter.