Ken Howard (1932 - 2022)

The death yesterday of Ken Howard OBE RA PPNEAC ROI RBSA RWA HonRBA has been announced. 

He celebrated his 22nd wedding anniversary on Friday 9th September with his partner Dora Bertolutti in Mousehole in Cornwall. Sadly his life ended at Truro Hospital on Sunday 11th September 2022, age 89,  following a very bad fall at his home in Mousehole in Cornwall.

Anybody who has been visiting exhibitions in London over the last two decades will have come across the artwork of Ken Howard on multiple occasions. Despite being represented by a leading art gallery in Bond Street gallery he regularly exhibited with art societies - most of which he was a member of.

For me painting is about three things. It is about revelation, communication and celebration. By revelation I mean giving people a way of seeing, revealing the world around them in a way they have never seen before, opening their eyes.

Ken Howard website

He also taught and mentored a number of artists - many of whom are active in art societies and  doing well! (see the end of this post for some of their tributes)

Self Portrait with Merida (oil on canvas) by Ken Howard

Below you can find an overview of the life and work of Ken Howard - including:

• the timeline of his life
• awards and honours
• publications about him and his work - and by him
• membership of art societies
• commissions
• art collections

I'll add in links to other obituaries and tributes about him at the end as I find them.

Ken Howard - a timeline

Ken Howard at 22, Ken Howard at 80

by Ken Howard PPNEAC, RA RBA ROI RWS

Exhibited at Royal Society of Portrait Painters - Annual Exhibition 2013

Early Life

• 1932 Ken Howard born in London. He lived in Alder Grove, Cricklewood and went to Kilburn Grammar School
• 1953-55 National Service in the Royal Marines

Art Education

• 1949-53 Studied at the Hornsey School of Art

As a student he participated regularly in the Hampstead open air art exhibitions and was commissioned to paint watercolours of local buildings and features including Keats House and Whitestone Pond.

• 1955-58 Studied at the Royal College of Art
• 1958-59 British Council Scholarship to Florence

Appointments

• 1973 and 1979 - Appointed official artist in Ireland by the Imperial War Museum 
• 2004-2012 - Elected Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy Schools
• 2007 - Appointed Freeman of the City of London, Liveryman Painter Stainers
• 2017 - Appointed a Patron of the Turner's House Trust

Notable Exhibitions

• 1952 First exhibited at the Royal Academy
• 1959 First exhibited at the New English Art Club
• First exhibited at Richard Green at 147 New Bond Street

Ken Howard painting June Mendoza painting Ken by June Mendoza OBE RP ROI

Art Societies

One of the notable aspects of Ken Howard was his wide and active involvement with various art societies. At one point he was a member of a large number by competitive entry and election. Others elected him as an Honorary Member as they liked his work so much!

• 1962 Elected member of the New English Art Club
• 1966 Elected member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
• 1979 Elected member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours
• 1981 Elected member of the Royal West of England Academy
• 1983 Associate Member of the Royal Academy
• 1988 Honorary Member of the Royal Society of British Artists
• Honorary Member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
• 1991 Member of the Royal Academy
• 1998-2005 - President of the New English Art Club
• 2006 - Elected fellow of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
• 2008 - Honorary Member of the Society of Graphic Fine Art

Ken Howard was considered by many to be an old favourite and stalwart of more than one society within the the world of the Federation of British Artists.

Latterly he began to become a Judge of many of the art competitions that such member artists entered.

Light effects I-VI, Calle Larga Galliana
a series of six oil paintings,
copyright Ken Howard RA, RWS, NEAC, RWA, ROI, RBA, RBSA, ARCA
exhibited at NEAC in 2009

He was so very popular that this led to a number of artists who sought to emulate him and his art. Towards the end of his career, I commented at one exhibition in 2018

I'm beginning to think that the successors to Ken Howard in terms of scope and style - are now outpainting Ken Howard....

but it took a very long time before that happened!

(Some of his) Prizes, Awards and Honours

• First prize Lord Mayor’s Art Award
• 1969 First prize Arundel Art Centre
• 1978 Prize winner John Moores Exhibition
• Prize winner John Laing Exhibition
• 1982 First prize Hunting Group Awards
• Prize winner Royal West of England Academy
• 1985 Critics’ prize, Sparkasse Karlsruhe
• 1986 Prize winner New English Art Club Centenary Exhibition
• 2001 - Critics’ prize New English Art Club 2001
• 2010 - Awarded OBE for services to Art in the Queen’s Birthday Honours

Ken Howard - Publications

Review Part 2: 161st Annual Exhibition of the Society of Women Artists

Part 2 of  my review of the annual exhibition of the Society of Women Artists at the Mall Galleries covers the exhibition as a whole in relation to:

• 469 artworks on display - with a high standard
• The ratio of members artwork to artwork selected from the open entry is 50:50. The latter has been selected from over 3,000 entries via the call for entries from non members
• a very great deal of 'fresh' artwork with "same old same old" at a minimum
• an outstanding exhibition sculpture
• a very impressive gallery of portraits
• better than some other art society exhibitions at the Mall Galleries

Yesterday I published Part 1 of my Review: 161st Annual Exhibition of the Society of Women Artists - which focused on the prizewinners.

Some of the sculpture in the West Gallery

The exhibition is open daily at the Mall Galleries 10am - 5pm - except for the last day (Sunday 11th September) when it closes at 1pm.

This is the list of artists selected for the exhibition - click their names to see their work online

Attractiveness of this Open Exhibition

This is an exhibition which:

• attracts over 3,000 entries via the open entry
• selects a large number of works for hanging or display in the exhibition - across all three galleries of the Mall Galleries
• aims to achieve a 50:50 ratio in relation to
• artwork exhibited by members
• artwork selected from the open entry
• AND in the way the artwork is exhibited

The latter 50:50 in particular is a very attractive proposition for those women artists wanting to enter open art exhibitions. It's a ratio not always achieved by the national art societies who rather too often tend to favour their members.

West Gallery

Moreover the exhibition is hung in such a way that it mixes up the artwork by members and non-members right across the exhibition. There's no "hogging" particular galleries by members and no sense of any dip in the quality of the work as you get into the North Gallery and move back - which is, to my mind, a feature of a few too many exhibitions held at the Mall Galleries.

So overall - this is an exhibition which demonstrates a very fair and even-handed approach to artwork by both members and non-members.

East Gallery - end wall

Quality of the Artwork

Review: 161st Annual Exhibition of the Society of Women Artists (Part 1: Prizewinners)

I visited the 161st Annual Exhibition of the Society of Women Artists at the Mall Galleries yesterday. I highly recommend you get along to the Mall Galleries if you can before it closes on Sunday 11th September.

Two large charcoal drawings exhibited in the East Gallery

The artwork can also be seen via an online exhibition.

Here's a summary of the highlights of my review - which I apologise for truncating and posting late due to the events of this afternoon.

PART 1:

• a packed Private View
• a good range of prizes - won by SWA members and open artists

PART 2:

• 469 artworks on display - with a high standard
• The ratio of members artwork to artwork selected from the open entry is 50:50. The latter has been selected from over 3,000 entries via the call for entries from non members
• a very great deal of 'fresh' artwork with "same old same old" at a minimum
• an outstanding exhibition sculpture
• a very impressive gallery of portraits
• better than some other art society exhibitions at the Mall Galleries

The exhibition is open daily 10am - 5pm - except for the last day when it closes at 1pm.

Private View & Prizes

Wildlife Artist of the Year won by Cy Baker

This year's open competitions for the Wildlife Artist of the Year - sponsored by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation and BBC Wildlife attracted a total of 1,654 artworks from 850 artists in 55 countries.

The competition amongst wildlife artists from all over the world was won by Cy Baker - about which there's more below!

Wildlife Artist of the Year was established in 2008 by David Shepherd CBE FRSA (1931 – 2017) and embodies his vision for ‘The Art of Survival’ i.e. using art for wildlife conservation. It's now co-sponsored by BBC Wildlife who used to also run a (separate) Wildlife Artist of the Year competition. It used to be very confusing at times!

Below you can find out more about the exhibition and how to see it - and who won the awards and prizes.

That's a decrease across all three categories: No. of artworks, no. of artists and no. of countries - compared to 2021. That said, it's comparable with 2020. Both exhibitions during the Pandemic were online only. The Online Exhibition 2022

Those selected for exhibition - and awards - were identified last week.

As somebody who has followed this exhibition every year and visited the Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries since 2008, I feel very, very sad this year that the exhibition this year is an ONLINE GALLERY ONLY EXHIBITION and I can't see the artwork 'up close and personal'. 

It's such a shame as we come out of the worst of the pandemic that we're not seeing this art competition returning to a proper art exhibition in a gallery - as is now happening with other regular art exhibitions at a national level.

I'm hearing from various organisations that they can no longer afford to exhibit at the Mall Galleries. The thing about managing a business is you can't price yourself out of the market - and you need prestigious exhibitions like this one to remain a gallery that people want to exhibit at.

The 2022 entries are grouped in galleries according to different categories which are 

Sales from the Artist's Estate

This is about resources for those needing to think about the disposal of art from an Estate after the death of an artist and/or art collector.

Having lost my mother recently, I'm in that rather odd phase where you become super sensitive to all mentions of death.

This morning it was the passing of Bill Turnbull - and the shock of realising he was younger than me! 

Followed by looking at the Mall Galleries website to check the dates of an exhibition - and noticing that the first thing I see is a new section of their website about sales of art from Artists Estates. 

(It's on the home page at the moment - but it's unclear which section you can find it in future as there are two possible options)

This appears to be publicising a feature/service that a small number of deceased members of the societies which make up the Federation of British Artists enjoy. It's certainly NOT including artwork by every artist who has died. Many of course will have made alternative arrangements. But there is a selection of artists whose work continues to be available online.

It occurs to me there's scope to make this into a more developed aspect of the offerings by the Mall Galleries. 

• Almost every exhibition I go to has news of between one and three artists who have died in the past year. 
• This is in part because many of the members of the various artists which make up the nine national Art Societies which form the Federation of British Artists (FBA) which runs the Mall Galleries tend to be rather old.

It's also a well known fact that many artists

• tend to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to thinking about disposal of their art after their death
• AND are not very good at making arrangements in advance for the disposal of their art after their death. Who should do it - and how it should be done. 

It's one thing to appoint Executors - as we all do - but many artists also need a specific Executor appointed to handle their art.

I've been well aware of this issue of the Art Legacy for some time. Hence a major section on my Art Business Info for Artists website which covers this topic - of which more below.....

The Art Legacy | Art Business Info for Artists