Kevin Best Biography

Born 27th January, 1932 in Hamilton NSW, Kevin, as a child loved to draw. After leaving school circumstances did not permit pursuit of a full time art career, and he worked on the stock exchange for 25 years.

In 1972 he began to paint, and on the 30th September 1977, at the age of 45 and with the encouragement from his wife and six children he turned professional.

With no outside training Kevin Best's natural talent ahs taken the form of "feeling" on canvas. The atmosphere created by mist, rays of light, reflections and drifts of dust has made Kevin one of the most popular artists of the Australian landscape. Although he admires artists such as Hans Heysen, Elioth Gruner and greats of the Heidelberg School, Kevin's inspiration comes from the landscape itself.

Kevin has quickly risen to be one of the most successful artists in Australia today. His creative talent has won him many awards and high acclaim all over the country.

Character and wit are part of Kevin's natural creative ability as seen in his titles and subjects.

Kevin is not obsessed with just one facet of the landscape and is constantly challenged by the variety that Australia presents in snow, rivers, surf, gum trees, rocks and by the contrasting colour schemes. He has widely traveled Australia from the highlands of the snowy river to the smooth serene river beds and outback dust and heat.

Kevin's intense love of drawing developed at an early age and he still has some of his sketches of warships and aircraft that he did during the war years. He joined the boy scouts and this was to have a tremendous effect on his life. Camping and hiking in the bush, he developed a deep insight into nature and this is now evident in his paintings.

Kevin Best held his first solo exhibition of 50 paintings in 1974. He has since had many more and is represented in private and corporate collections in UK, USA, Japan, France, Italy, New Zealand, Canada and Australia.

His work has been the subject of a range of both limited and open edition prints.