Kent Lovelace

The oil on copper paintings of Kent Lovelace are characterized by luminous tones, reflective highlights, and descriptive brushwork. His scenes of French, Italian, and other rural countryside provide an opportunity for him to explore first and last light of day, and to create compositions that dramatize the movement inherent in the landscape. Lovelace's shimmering paintings emphasize tranquility, and can depict calm, reflective water, fallow field, and fertile hillside, and especially ever-changing light and atmosphere. He suggests movement by manipulating composition, and evokes a sense of history in, say, tree blown sideways by the forces of nature.

Lovelace's use of copper plate is unusual in contemporary art but dates back to the early Renaissance era. When viewing Lovelace's works in person, one can notice subtle shifts of golden light that reflect under the pigments and onto the copper surface. This technique allows for a rare advantage that oil paint alone could not achieve.

Lovelace writes, "I find myself drawn to land that has been cultivated continuously for thousands of year, where people seem to live in harmony with nature away from the intrusions of modern technologies."

Lovelace began training at the University of Colorado, where he earned his BFA in 1976. An apprenticeship at landfall Press in Chicago brought him in contact with such artists at Christo, William Wiley and Claes Oldenburg. At the University of Washington, he earned his MFA in Printmaking in 1979, under the direction of Jacob Lawrence and Glen Alps. While the paintings of copper are relatively new in the span of a long career, Lovelace's works have been collected by such institutions as Safeco, King County Arts Commission, United Airlines, Swedish and Providence Hospitals, Boeing, AT&T, Nordstrom, and Preston Thorgrimson Ellis & Holman. He has interviewed with CNN and Northwest public radio stations, and has guest lectured at museums and universities throughout the Northwest.