Kevin Kehoe
Kevin Kehoe is a native New Englander who made Utah’s Heber Valley his full-time home in 2011, after living in Boston, Providence, Seattle, San Francisco, and New York. He attended the Art Institute of Boston and grew up wonderfully inspired by the work of masters like Edward Hopper, John Singer Sargent, Andrew Wyeth, Winslow Homer, Johan Vermeer, Vincent Van Gogh, John Register, Georgia O'Keefe, and Maynard Dixon just to name a few.
Kehoe is attracted the attention of internationally celebrated art publications including Southwest Art Magazine and Western Art Collector. In 2018, he was the Artist to Watch featured in Southwest Art Magazine’s February issue.
Kehoe’s studio is in The Old Firehouse Building in Utah's beautiful Heber Valley. With the Wasatch and Uinta mountain ranges as my backdrop, I covet the southerly light that pours into my studio windows each day. The supreme light makes it ideal for seeing colors truly, seeing them purely. Most days I don't even turn the lights on until early evening. Kevin, his wife Julie, their daughter Kate and their black lab Ranger, live in a log home overlooking the valley they love. As Kevin likes to say, “We all have the West in our blood, and are better off for it.”
Kevin Kehoe’s aim is to discover, capture, and express the true essence of his subject matter. “That is my pursuit.” Simply put, he says, “I strive to paint how something makes me feel, and reflect the impressions left upon me, upon the canvas. My aim as a painter is to stimulate the eyes with works that feel emotionally conjured. I don’t force my subject matter or manufacture it. I allow things to come to me. I allow things to stop me. As a keen observer, my art celebrates the art of me being struck by the natural, genuine beauty I see and feel in the world. I look for authenticity in places, beings, and things. I like to think my subject matter exudes a soulfulness and has a story to tell. Light, to me, is the most beautiful element in the universe because of its power to artfully transform anything it touches, anything it wraps itself around. Light and composition are paramount as I contemplate what to paint and why. Successful composition is probably more important than the brushwork itself. My paintings are about how I want to recall a moment in time in my mind and more importantly, my heart.”
Only eight years into his painting journey, Kehoe has received a notable body of recognition and realized several meaningful accomplishments in the art world. His series of twelve paintings titled “Western Therapy” was invited to be one half of the inaugural exhibit that opened the new Southern Utah Museum of Art in Cedar City in 2016 and a piece from that series was acquired by the State of Utah for its permanent collection. Another piece was acquired for the permanent collection of the acclaimed Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia. Kevin’s work has also been on exhibit at The Albuquerque Art Museum during the museum’s ArtsThrive event.
