Biography from AskART:
| Please note: Artists not classified as American in our database may have limited biographical data
compared to the extensive information about American artists.
From Liverpool, England and living during much of his career in Diss,
Norfolk, Josh Kirby worked from multiple studios in a large Tudor
rectory. He was an illustrator of surrealist fantasy
subjects---science fiction. He said that major influences on his
style were Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516), Pieter Bruegel the Elder
(1525-1569) and Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956).
He was born with the name of Ronald William Kirby, but took the name of
Josh because his classmates at the Liverpool City School of Art began
calling him Josh because they said he painted like Joshua
Reynolds. After finishing this school, one of his earliest
commissions was doing a portrait of the City Mayor, flattering
attention for a new artist. However, he decided portrait painting
was dull, so he went to London and took a job with Pulford Publicity
making film posters. This activity lasted for many years, but he
yearned for a freelance career.
His first published cover illustration painting was done in 1954 for a science fiction novel, Cee-Tee Man,
a 1955 science fiction novel by Dan Morgan. Shortly after that he
determined that science fiction illustration was what he wanted to
do. Between 1954 and 1999, he did over 400 illustrations, with a
primary client being Discworld owned by Terry Pratchett. He also
completed many fine-art paintings with western, adventure and romance
themes.
He usually worked with oil paint, applied in thin layers, and usually
it took him about four weeks to complete each painting. It has
been frustrating for collectors that he insisted on keeping the
originals of his illustration paintings.
"Past collections of his work are: The Voyage of the Ayeguy (1981), a portfolio of six linked science-fantasy pictures rather than a book; The Josh Kirby Poster Book (1989), containing 13 posters inspired by Discworld; In the Garden of Unearthly Delights (1991), a large selection of 159 paintings; and The Josh Kirby Discworld Portfolio (1993), actually a book of 28 paintings rather than a portfolio. Large-format editions of Eric
(1990), whose text is by Terry Pratchett, contain enough elaborate
Kirby illustrations (15 plus cover) to qualify as another
mini-collection -- the artist receives equal front-cover
credit."(ansible)
Source:
http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/joshbio.html
|
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
|
|
|
|
|
|