Ken Evans was born in 1924 in England, and was related to Jack B Yeats and to William Butler Yeats, but grew up impoverished, his father was a farm labourer.
He decided at an early age to be an artist and as a teenager attended evening classes, where he studied drawing with cartoonist Norman Thelwell, before following a career in the 1950s and ‘60s as a cartoonist and illustrator.
Ken Evans didn’t actually take up painting full time until he was 47. He painted in different styles; paintings from the early 1970s have a gritty, urban quality, whilst art from his ‘whimsical’ period echo the post World War 1 Surrealist movement. By contrast, his gentler country scenes depict rural life with a humorous twist, similar to Beryl Cook. Many of these paintings were used for greetings cards.
He preferred traditional mediums and his favourite was egg tempera, an egg-based emulsion which is quick to dry; most of his paintings took just two weeks to complete.
During his career and up until his death in 1987, Ken Evans exhibited widely in the provinces, made several television appearances and was included in a number of major London exhibitions such as the Royal Society of Watercolour Artists and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.
He decided at an early age to be an artist and as a teenager attended evening classes, where he studied drawing with cartoonist Norman Thelwell, before following a career in the 1950s and ‘60s as a cartoonist and illustrator.
Ken Evans didn’t actually take up painting full time until he was 47. He painted in different styles; paintings from the early 1970s have a gritty, urban quality, whilst art from his ‘whimsical’ period echo the post World War 1 Surrealist movement. By contrast, his gentler country scenes depict rural life with a humorous twist, similar to Beryl Cook. Many of these paintings were used for greetings cards.
He preferred traditional mediums and his favourite was egg tempera, an egg-based emulsion which is quick to dry; most of his paintings took just two weeks to complete.
During his career and up until his death in 1987, Ken Evans exhibited widely in the provinces, made several television appearances and was included in a number of major London exhibitions such as the Royal Society of Watercolour Artists and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.