Canada
Drew Keilback, FoxTrot, oil, 18 x 36.
OFTEN MOVED by nature’s beauty, Drew Keilback doesn’t need to travel far for inspiration. His winning entry was inspired by a walk one early spring day, just after a snowfall, along the Fraser River near his home in British Columbia. Using various tools to apply and model his oil paint—from brushes and knives to Q-tips and rags—Keilback created FOXTROT, a vivid scene where sunlight and shadow converge across fresh tracks in the snow left by a fleeting visitor: “Along the riverbank, a red fox gains an advantage on his next quarry,” says the artist. “Only his tracks hint at his presence.”
Besides the rugged beauty of his surroundings, Keilback looks to the painterly brushwork of western artists like Howard Terpning, Matt Smith, and Mian Situ for inspiration. “They have the ability to draw the viewer in, to make you want to participate,” he says. Keilback, who grew up on the Canadian Prairies, grew fond of contemporary Southwestern art while studying fine art at Glendale College in Phoenix, AZ. Upon returning to Can-ada, he worked as a television broadcast designer. The role sharpened his eye as a painter, says the artist, thanks to the compositing and 3-D software he used, which helped him appreciate the effects of ambient and reflected light.
Now painting full time, Keilback primarily works from photographs and pencil sketches, finessing his compositions in Photoshop before painting. “For me, each painting is like a puzzle waiting to be solved,” he says. “Even though I consider myself a representational artist, there is an inner desire to separate the process of painting from the creation of art—to be more intuitive rather than descriptive.” Find Keilback’s work at www.westart.ca and www.drewsart.com. —Kim Agricola
This story was featured in the December 2019/January 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art December 2019/January 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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