Ron Kingswood

Born in St. Thomas, Ontario, Ron Kingswood developed a strong interest in the outdoors as a young man hunting with his father. During his teenage years, he was enamored with the realistic paintings of Don Eckelberry whose work frequented the pages of Audubon magazine and with whom Kingswood would establish a mentor/student correspondence. It was on Eckelberry's recommendation that Kingswood sought formal training at H. B. Beal Secondary School in London, Ontario where he studied color theory and composition.

 

Around this time, Kingswood discovered the works of fellow Canadian artist, Robert Bateman, the acknowledged dean of wildlife painting who would encourage Kingswood to pursue a fresh vision he could call his own. After achieving enormous success with photo realistic work, Kingswood was advised by Eckelberry to resist the tightly rendered highly illustrative approach.

 

The result of finding his own vision is "a distinctly impressionistic style that is radically different from that of any other wildlife artist working today. His mastery of color, his visual composition, and highly original approach to his subjects are influencing the evolution of animal art." (Southwest Art, June 2001).  As art critic Todd Wilkinson notes, "Although Kingswood, who spends weeks each year in the field as a naturalist, pays homage to animals in his works, he considers his subject matter secondary to the flood of color flowing off his palette in abstract streaks, rivulets and muted mosaics."