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New Paintings – February 2024

I’m excited to share my 3 newest paintings with you!

They are all mini size 6×4.5″ and would be perfect for cheering up a little space around your home or work space.

Click any of the images for more information

folk art style painting of an opossum playing a fiddle

Opossum Serenade

folk art abstract style painting of a pig in a cornfield

Pig In Cornfield

folk art abstract style acrylic painting of a pig making pottery on the wheel

Pottery Makes Me Happy As A Pig In Mud

Hope you all have a great week!!!

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New Paintings – January

Hi All!

I spent a lot of November and December making pottery (perfect art for holiday gifts).
Now i’m dusting my paint brushes off and getting back on the easel. To warm up, I made these fun little gems. Not very big, but they are guaranteed to brighten up and bring cheer to any gloomy little spot in your art collection.

click any of the images for more information

folk art abstract style painting of a cat playing the guitar
abstract folk art style painting of a fox
folk art style painting of a cat eating cereal

All these original paintings are framed in a handmade black wood frame.

abstract folk art style painting of a weiner dog drinking coffee
folk art style abstract painting of a chicken with a coffee cup
Folk Art style abstract painting of a cat standing on a tuna can
folk art abstract style painting of an opossum playing a guita

I also have notecards available for those of you who’d like to support my work and mail some happy art to one of your friends.
Thanks all for your support!
Ken

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Gallery of the month – website changes

I recently removed my online gallery which archived over 20 years of my artwork.

From now on, this gallery is going to change every month, and will include 12 hand picked artworks.

Here are a few examples that I picked for the month of July
Click any of the images (or use the menu above) to see the whole JULY GALLERY

folk art abstract style country painting of 3 cows by a lake with a house in the background
folk art abstract style painting of pigs and a cow in front of a barn with the american flag by kentucky artist ken swinson
folk art abstract style painting of a man selling watermelon from the back of his truck

click any image to see the whole gallery for this month

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New Painting – Under The Pear Tree

abstract folk art style painting of a goat standing under a pear tree. A bird is standing on the goat's horn talking to another bird standing in the tree.

it’s been awhile since I’ve painted on canvas, so I’m super excited to show off my latest acrylic painting:

Under the Pear Tree 14″x34″ Acrylic on canvas.

The Original is not available until tomorrow (Friday 28 April 2023) from 5-9pm at The Pendleton Art Center, but signed cotton rag archival prints are available online now. Click the image for more details.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

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Midnight Snack Pigs in Corn – New Acrylic painting!

it’s been awhile since I’ve painted on canvas, so I’m super excited to show off my latest acrylic painting: Midnight Snack: Pigs In Corn. After working in colored pencils, this feels big- 18″x36″ inches. If this is something that you might like to have for your art collection, the original will be available for view (and sale) next friday, 28 April 2023 at the Pendleton Art Center! I’m also selling prints on 100% cotton rag paper with archival inks right now. Stay tuned, more coming soon!

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New Paintings : Sheep and Kiss at Twilight

I’m diving deeper exploring a new way to paint and make marks. A lot of this technique is like monoprinting, but I’m mixing drawing and painting. Each has their strengths. I love to work in a variety of mediums, so mixed media feels natural to me.

This week’s paintings depict two more of my favorite farm themes: a happy sheep, jumping around on the farm, and two pigs *in love* kissing in the twilight. A lucky friend/collector got a sneak peek and the pigs and it’s now part of their collection, but fortunately, fine art prints are available. The original sheep painting is available.

click the links below for more information on prints and the original.

Thank you all for your support!

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New Paintings Night Time Chickens and Flying Pig

I had a great week of painting! 2D work uses a different part of my brain. I’m combining printmaking, painting and drawing–along with some of the layered surface design ideas that I recently learned from Adero Willard at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.

This week’s paintings depict two of my favorite themes: Flying Pigs and Chickens in a tree at night.
Prints AND THE ORIGINALS(update: originals no longer available) are available if you would like to add one of these to your art collection.
Thank you all for your support!

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Time to paint!!!

Since the pandemic, I’ve spent a lot of time working in the clay studio. I love making pots, but the weather is changing, and I’m ready to exercise a different creative part of my brain.

I love to learn and grow through my art. After a couple of years of intensive study and practice in clay, I’m still me, but it’s also made me a new and different artist. I don’t want to go back to painting the way I did 2-3 years ago. I’m excited because I can feel a new way of thinking and creating in my brain, heart and soul. I want to build on what I’ve learned, but also go somewhere I’ve never been before with painting.

These two paintings are the beginning (prints and the originals are available!) . Stay tuned to see where this takes us!!!

UPDATE: The originals are no longer available. Thank you for your support!!!

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Old Washington Paint Group – 6 July 2022

Today’s challenge at the Old Washington wednesday paint group was a bright turquoise pot with yellow marigolds. Here is my underpainting

Starting to add some color to the painting. Yellow and green flowers have been a challenge for me in the past. I’m going to try to keep all the colors, except yellow, toned down, so the yellow pops.

I have color in place. I’m floundering at this point–i haven’t used any cuss words, but the flowers are little yellow ‘monsters’

That’s a wrap! Like I said before, yellow/green floral combinations can be tricky for me, but I’m happy with how this one came out.

Me, the artist, at work! Cameras are a great tool, but sometimes it’s nice to put the technology away and work completely from direct observation…no cameras (or apps). Working directly from life is a great way to experience a subject!

a close up of the finished painting. the colors shine even better in real life–cameras just aren’t the same as experiencing a painting in real life.  

oil on board
12″x16″

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flower painting in Old Washington

It’s been awhile since I’ve painted from life (direct observation-no photos).

the underpainting

I had a wonderful time painting with Old Washington’s Wednesday paint group.

Flower painting is NOT as easy as you might think (at least not for me). Flowers can be mean, horrible monsters as models…with their seemingly simple and dainty translucent petals.

finished painting

It was fun! I got to visit with friends and I’m happy with the painting. Thank you Vicki Tichenor for the photo of me at the easel!

Ken at the easel

See you next wednesday!