“I
come from a long line of fisherman and farmers who found
their homes here on Martha’s Vineyard. My family spans
hundreds of years living and working on this island and I
was raised on my family farm in West Tisbury. Coming from
a long line of farmers and fisherman, it is unusual that
I have become a professional artist. However, working so
closely with the land and the sea, I have gained a different
perspective of life on Martha’s Vineyard. With the
island as the backdrop to my youth, it is easy to be inspired
by the landscape of which you are a part. There is more than
just the aesthetic of MV to appreciate — there is an
ancestry to appreciate as well. When I paint, I see all these
things left in the landscape; the barns, the trees, the fields,
the water. And all these places share history, not only with
my family and I over many generations, but with others as
well who share their own history of a place. To me, every
landscape of Martha’s
Vineyard has a memory to it, and this is what shapes much
of the subject matter that I paint. The memory left in the
landscape is what inspires me to
paint it.”
After
graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, Kenneth
Vincent returned to Martha’s Vineyard
and worked for the MV Times, illustrating favorite local
places off the beaten track for “The Walks” column.
This began his journey of rediscovering the many forgotten
places the island has to offer. These overlooked places are
the subjects he found most interesting and inspiring — and
have become the foundation of his current body of work.
Ken lives
on the Vineyard year round with his wife, Cathleen, and their
son, Broden, who was born in 2007. He works full-time as
a painter as well as an illustrator for children’s books. |
