About Keith Lowe
 Keith was born and raised in Leeds and after studying A-level art at school
with a view to attending Art College instead took a degree in mechanical engineering at
Leeds University. This was followed by a career in research and development spanning 30
years, mostly in the Electricity Supply Industry. Throughout this time however he
maintained a keen involvement with fine art which resulted in one-man and collaborative
exhibitions. His main output involves portrait and figurative studies, which he interprets
in oils, pastel and water-based media.
After taking early retirement he has been able to devote more time to developing his
work and for a period this involved an excursion into the world of cartooning with sales
to a National newspaper. Over the past two years he has been invited to sit-in on classes
at a local Ballet School and sketch the dancers as they perform. This has yielded an
abundance of material on which he is still working in addition to the body of work which
has resulted from regular life drawing sessions with the Saturday People. Some years ago,
after a particularly difficult drawing session, a fellow member commented, “ The
thing I’ve noticed about Keith is that whatever he’s drawing he finds something
beautiful.” He regards this as his greatest complement, for whilst he concedes that
shock tactics have a necessary part to play in art for political reasons, its gratuitous
use can never be justified. “ There is enough ugliness in the World as it is without
adding to it.” There is a line in a popular song which goes, “ You fill up my
senses like a night in the forest,” and a personal search for what gives rise to this
sensation underpins much of Keith’s life work. He believes strongly in the stimulus
of working directly from the subject but is currently developing a series of pictures
which reflect on contemporary urban life and touch upon his industrial background and is
finding here that photographic and camcorder material is providing valuable supplementary
reference.
Keith now lives in Knaresborough and is married with a grown-up son and daughter. He
has a one-year old grandson who will likely provide additional free modelling, along with
the rest of the family, in the years to come. |
