Biography from Altermann Galleries and Auctioneers, Santa Fe - II:
| Kenneth Riley
A realist oil painter of the historical West, born in Waverly, Missouri in 1919 and has been living in Tucson, Arizona since 1971. The intensity of the light “probably triggered the whole excitement about coming to the West,” he commented, “especially the breaking light when you could see patterns. When you get into a big space with immense patterns moving across the countryside, it’s unbelievable. Trying to get some of these effects is a lifetime right there.”
Raised in Kansas, Riley went to the Kansas City Art Institute to study with Thomas Hart Benton in 1938 when his high school art teacher offered to pay for the first semester. In 1941, he moved on to the Art Students League and Frank Vincent DuMond in New York City, with evening classes at the Grand Central School of Art and Harvey Dunn. Soon Riley was selling illustration, working for the National Geographic, the Saturday Evening Post, and other national publications. One painting was even accepted by President Kennedy for the White House collection.
Painting Yellowstone and the Tetons for the National Park Service and teaching at Brigham Young University influenced Riley to move west. Also, he says that he “became excited about painting this country and tying in the historical aspects of it.” Riley has been written up in Artist of the Rockies, Art West and Southwest Art.
Resource: Contemporary Western Artists, by Peggy and Harold Samuels 1982, Judd’s Inc., Washington, D.C
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Biography from AskART:
| A realist painter of the Old West and a highly successful illustrator, Ken Riley was born in Waverly, Missouri in 1919 and has had a studio in Tucson, Arizona from 1971.
He was raised in Kansas and received his art education at the Kansas City Art Institute, where he was a student of Thomas Hart Benton. Aware of Riley's unusual talent, a high school art teacher had paid for his first semester of tuition at the Institute. In 1941, Riley went to New York to study with Frank DuMond at the Art Students League, and he also took evening classes at the Grand Central School of Art and with illustrator Harvey Dunn.
Riley began his illustration career by selling work to the pulp magazines for fifteen dollars each, but enlistment in World War II as a combat artist redirected his work. After the War, he returned to illustration, contributing to magazines including "National Geographic," and the "Saturday Evening Post". President John F. Kennedy chose one of Riley's paintings for the White House collection.
Riley went on painting trips to Yellowstone and the Tetons and taught at Brigham Young University in Utah and was so taken with the intensity of the light that he determined to move West.
He is a charter member of the National Academy of Western Art, and in 1982 was elected to the Cowboy Artists of America, an exclusive group of painters and sculptors dedicated to western art in the tradition of Charles Russell and Frederic Remington.
Source: "Contemporary Western Artists" by Peggy and Harold Samuels.
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Kenneth Riley is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Illustrators
Western Painters
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