The Artist - Kenneth Fowler

We have a small selection of prints available to buy online.

Visit Kenneth Fowler's Fine Art Galleries on York Digital Image ImageLab:

Traditional Gallery
Equestrian Gallery
Humour Gallery
Surreal Gallery

About the Artist
Born in 1955 among the bomb damaged streets of Hessle Road in Hull, Kenneth Fowler left school at 15 and went to work on the fish docks as a barrow boy, a major form of employment at that time. Although excelling in art at school and being told he was gifted, this did nothing to persuade him that art was a proper form of employment, yet soon after receiving his first wage packet he purchased his first box of oil paints.

Ken was inspired by the paintings he had seen in the Hull art galleries and also the painting that hung in the Wilberforce Museum where his mother had worked as a cleaner since he was a child, he began to paint seriously at this time, although he did not exhibit until he was eighteen. His first picture was a small oil painting of a river scene, which he entered into the open art exhibition at Ferens Art Gallery, which was open to professionals as well as amateurs. This picture sold, and encouraged him greatly.

Getting married at twenty and having children meant painting was always going to take a back seat, yet Ken always found time to peruse his passion, in between his colourful working life, as barrow boy on the fish dock, driver for a funeral firm, window cleaner, lifeboat man for the RNLI and sailing on coasters around Europe and later on in construction. These experiences led to him meeting many interesting characters, helping to form the humour which is evident in his work.

Ken Fowler exhibited his work at various open exhibitions over the country and received much praise from critics. He also entered competitions, one of which he was particularly proud of; run by the News of the World, he was one of the winners from over 20,000 entries from all over the county. The Editor of the newspaper was so impressed with Ken's picture that he used it for the Company's greetings cards.

He went on to design book covers and sell pictures to horse owners as far afield as South Africa. Ken was asked to produce three works of art for a touring exhibition, visiting galleries in Boston, Lincoln and Hull. This exhibition caused quite a bit of publicity, as someone broke into the gallery and unscrewed one of his works of art and stole it. To Ken, this was a back-handed compliment: for someone to go to that amount of trouble, they must have really liked it!

Another proud moment for Ken was when the curator of the Ferens Art Gallery recognised his talent and persuaded the gallery to purchase one of his works of art for their pertinent collection, which is now on display.

Not having to produce pictures for a living has given Ken a certain freedom; a luxury few professional artists have, so when he does produce work, they are truly from the heart and mean a lot to him. The characters that live in his paintings are very real and can often be found making special appearances in his other works of fine art.