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Ken Knight6th Feb 20 4:38pm Antarctica, 2020Oil on board25 x 50 cmSigned lower right
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Ken Knight7th Feb 20, 8:34am Antarctica, 2020Oil on board33 x 35 cmSigned lower right
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Ken Knight7th Feb 20, Dawn - Antarctica, 2020Oil on board33 x 35 cm
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Ken Knight9th Feb 20, 3:17pm Antarctica, 2020Oil on board33 x 35 cmSigned lower left
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Ken KnightAcross the Harbour to DevonportOil on board12 x 29.5 cmSigned
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Ken KnightAutumn in QueenstownOil on board16 x 37 cmSigned
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Ken KnightCanal ViewOil on board42 x 37 cmSigned
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Ken KnightForeshores of Lake OkarekaOil on board31 x 68 cmSigned
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Ken KnightFour Seasons in One DayOil on board38 x 50 cmSigned lower right, signed & titled verso
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Ken KnightGlacial River - Mount Cook National ParkOil on board101 x 122 cmSigned lower left
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Ken KnightGlacial Valley and Mount CookOil on board76 x 50 cmSigned lower right
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Ken KnightGlenorchy LandscapeOil on board63 x 80 cmSigned lower left, signed & dated verso
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Ken KnightGlimpse of the Marina Lake WanakaOil on board50 x 21 cmSigned
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Ken KnightIce Flow Antarctica, 2020Signed lower right119 x 112 cmSigned lower right
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Ken KnightIce Flow Antarctica II, 2020Oil on board33 x 35 cmSigned lower left
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Ken KnightLion Rock and PihaOil on board85 x 100 cmSigned
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Ken KnightMisty Showers on the TongariroOil on board35.5 x 23 cmSigned lower right, signed & titled verso
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Ken KnightMorning Light - Milford SoundOil on board37 x 84 cmSigned lower left
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Ken KnightMount CookOil on board101 x 118 cmSigned lower left, signed & titled verso
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Ken KnightMountain Stream near GlentannerOil on board100 x 85 cmSigned lower right, signed & titled verso
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Ken KnightThe Windswept Beach, PihaOil on board70 x 120 cmSigned
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Ken KnightWorking on the Wharf Near DevonportOil on board21.5 x 61.5 cmSigned lower left
Ken Knight was born in Sydney in 1956. He is one of Australia’s leading plein-air painters and as such he follows a rich lineage of Australia’s famous impressionists including Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts. His iconic landscapes are inspired by the azure blue of Sydney harbour, the sweeping drama of the Kakadu, the frosty grandeur of the Snowy Mountains and the vast open stretches of land and sea that surround him.
“My paintings are all about simplifying the landscape,” he says. “I don’t like to tell the whole story, otherwise it loses its mystery. By reducing the landscape and abstracting elements from it, I enable the viewers to make an interpretation of the image for themselves.”
Knight concedes his work is in the style of the Heidelberg School of which Streeton was a leading member. He spends approximately four months of the year travelling, sketching and painting as he goes. Several sketches are often made of a scene before the final work is executed; a process he says is essential in “freeing up” the work.
The controlled exaggeration of colour in the landscape is fundamentally important to his technique. Heavy impasto applied with a palette knife and energetic brushwork creates a painting that offers something a little different each time it is viewed.
After each expedition he takes the paintings back to his studio, where he evaluates and appraises them, often making subtle changes to improve the structure of the finished painting.
Over the years Knight has travelled and painted extensively around New Zealand. He is especially inspired by the West Coast of the North Island for its “primeval grandeur” and the majestic mountains in the South Island.
Knight has been awarded the Windsor and Newton Australian Art Award, 1994 and the Royal Arts Society Spring Exhibition, 1998, among many other awards. In February 2003 Ken’s first London exhibition was held at W H Patterson Gallery in Albermarle Street, Mayfair. His most recent London exhibition was at Tryon Gallery.
Knight’s work has been purchased for numerous private and public collections in Australia, England, Italy, America, Mexico, South Africa and Europe, including those of the Castlemaine Regional Art Gallery and Historical Museum, IBM, The Commonwealth Bank, Johnson & Johnson, Parliament House in Brisbane, The Royal Grocers Hall, London and the collection of The Archbishop of New York.