Meet my friend Ken

Moving in to our Summerland home in October of 2022 the first piece of art we broke out of its packing box was a watercolour painted by my friend, Ken Faulks. It

Is a lovely plein air painting from the Dewdrop Plateau in Kamloops, our former home. Its size, style, and mood perfectly complement the surrounding interior of our living room; it is the first piece visitors find once through our front door.

It is not our first Ken Faulks original. A larger painting of Victoria’s Goldstream Park originally purchased by my parents many years ago has hung above my office desk for well over a decade. With the creations of other artist friends, we are blessed to have original art throughout our home. We live, amongst creative friends.

Ken and I go way back. While a few years younger than me, we grew up together at St. John’s Anglican Church in Victoria. I sung in the choir; he doodled on the printed bulletin. I looked up at the organ pipes; his gaze reached for the sky, and to clouds in particular —clouds have become his landscape trademark. His best memory of church was singing All Things Bright and Beautiful, though what he really wanted was to go home.

A short biography on his website reads:

“1964, in Victoria BC Canada… that’s where it all started for me, and by the age of 2, I was already working towards my career as a visual artist.

At the age of 16, I found myself picking up the odd illustration job. By 1984, I took on the role of ‘professional freelance illustrator’, working in Victoria for a couple years, then moving to Vancouver and continuing my freelance adventure.

In 1989, I added ‘plein air painter’ to the mix and started exhibiting in galleries the next year. Along with a number of other painters, Canada’s Group of Seven was a huge influence in my early years of plein air painting.

From my first time painting outdoors, I loved both the experience and process. I continue paint ‘en plein air’ to this day.

All these years later, I’m still at it. I do less commercial work these days, spend more time painting and have gallery representation for my work in Victoria BC, Edmonton AB, and Toronto ON. I’ve been exhibiting my work regularly as a professional painter since 1991.”

If the above describes what he does, he goes on to describe how and why he paints:

“I work both en plein air and in the studio. Although oil is my main medium, I enjoy watercolour, gouache, and acrylic as well. I love the abstractness of paint and what a brush stroke or a blob of paint can do. Painting en plein air is a great process. It’s a challenging and satisfying one. Although my work is generally representational, I also enjoy non-representational painting.

Whether painting en plein air or in the studio, the reference I’m painting from is only a starting point. When done, the painting and more specifically the paint is what’s left to look at and consider. I’m no longer looking at a tree, a field, rocks, water or clouds. I’m looking at a paint on a support… a three dimensional object. At the end of the day, I consider the paint itself to be the subject. Therefore, it’s important for the paint to be doing something interesting, to engage the viewer, so they keep coming back for more.”

We both enjoy photography, comedy, and at times a fond camaraderie. Photographing together we share stories, grumbles, and sometimes social and political issues and concerns. Ken is remarkably insightful about people, relationships, and life. He can often encapsulate a complex social matter in a very few, poignant words effortsly. I often take an idea from our conversations as a seed for a sermon or a blog. While he has his own “rough edges” he is truly “one who has no guile.” He is genuinely interested in the person with whom he speaks. Slow to anger, though sometimes a bit worked up, he embodies kindness, towards others, and to me, for which I am most grateful.

His professional life has zigged and zagged over the years. He once attended an event designed to attract young artists to post-secondary schools. The line was too long for Emily Carr School of Art and Design in Vancouver. Impatiently, he moved over to the desk of the Art Institute of Chicago. After showing his portfolio to the recruiter he was offered a full scholarship to this famous school. For various reasons he was unable to attend, so just did his own thing, as he always does.

The life of a professional artist is not easy. The arts generally are under-appreciated and insufficiently funded, treated by many as a mere hobby, a pleasurable pastime for those unable or uninterested in other professions or vocations. The arts are still seen as peripheral to the “real” economy of life. Can you imagine a world without the arts? No theatre, no galleries, no music, no poetry, no fiction or well-wrought prose? What a lonely place the world would be.

Ken produces art of great beauty, a creative product which delights and inspires me, and so many others. I encourage readers to browse his site, and if it may be, to  purchase works for your home or office, as gifts, and as additions to your personal collections.

Thanks Ken for your friendship over many years, and for the gift you share so freely.

Visit Ken Faulks online at https://kenfaulks.com/

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