Wes Kendall named ‘Kentucky Artist of the Year’
The Central Kentucky Artist Guild has announced its 2006 Artist of the Year, Wes Kendall of Louisville. Kendall, who was born in Guston but moved to Irvington as a small boy, still has strong ties to Meade County. His father, James Kendall, lives in Meade County as do several other family members, meaning Wes still spends a lot of time down here. “I claim both Meade and Breckinridge counties as my home,” said Kendall. Time spent in Meade County has provided Kendall with many of the ideas for his work. “I spent a lot of my childhood days in Guston, and those experiences and the people I met there have been the basis for a lot of my paintings,” said Kendall. “Back then, I thought the whole world was that way – like a Mayberry. I enjoyed drawings that would tell a story. It was always a great joy for me when people recognized those I had drawn.” As a young boy, Kendall watched a “how to draw” television program and learned much from that. He also took art lessons from a woman in Meade County. Wes Kendall’s brother Jim shared the following story about his brother Wes’s early art lessons. “His first art teacher was Flora Wilson in Brandenburg. She only worked with him for several months before she told him, ‘I can’t teach you anything else. You now know more than I do.’” Wes Kendall’s first commercial art job was for his grandmother, who asked him to do a painting for Patteson Memorial Presbyterian Church in Guston. “This was back when I was young and still in school, and I got a little carried away with it,” said Kendall. “It took me an entire summer to do it. At six feet wide and nine feet tall, it’s the largest work I’ve ever done. And it’s still there in the church.” Just getting started, Kendall’s first thought was to paint “pretty girls” like artists Coby Whitmore, Andrew Loomis, and R.G. Harris. “But I learned early on I was distracted by pretty faces too much to get much work done. So, I concentrated on children and the elderly,” said Kendall, whose work is influenced by Norman Rockwell and other similar artists of the 1950s and 1960s and may be best described as “Americana.” Kendall has come a long way with his art since then and has now been a professional artist for over 40 years. After graduating from the American Academy of Art in Chicago, he became an illustrator for the Military Airlift Command. In 1968, he served in the Army as a combat illustrator in Da Nang, South Vietnam, earning a Bronze Star while there. Kendall then moved on to the Courier-Journal in Louisville, working at the newspaper for 32 years as a staff artist up until his retirement in 2001. He continues to work on a freelance basis and has over the years done record and book covers, portraits, greeting cards, and illustrations and covers for several newspapers and magazines. He’s also done over 70 portraits for top sales representatives of the Chrysler Corporation and over 300 portraits of top Ford Motor Company salespeople. Other clients include the University of Louisville, The Saturday Evening Post, The Olympic Games, Sears, Pepsi Cola, VCR, and Soft Sector magazines. A member of The Plein Air Painters of Kentucky as well as the Central Kentucky Artist Guild, Kendall has won seven blue ribbons and best of show at the Kentucky State Fair. He has also won best of show at the Louisville Women’s Club and was elected six times as artist of the month at the Central Kentucky Artist Guild. A reception and show entitled “Faces and Places” will be given in Kendall’s honor from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday, March 23 at the Historic State Theater Complex located at 209 West Dixie Avenue in downtown Elizabethtown. Kendall’s artwork – over 40 paintings and drawings – will then remain on display 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, through April 6. “I’m hoping people will come to the reception and that I’m not the only one in the building that evening,” said Kendall. “It’s the only time I’ll have had this volume of work in one location. I’d really love to see old friends I haven’t seen in years.”
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By KAREN KENNEDY