About the Artist
Kent Lovelace (1953-2017) was a nationally acclaimed Pacific Northwest artist known for his masterful oil paintings, lithographs, and watercolors. Born in 1953 and raised in the eastern hills of the San Francisco bay area, he moved to the Pacific Northwest in the 1970’s where he gained his education and had a notable early career as a Master Lithographer to well-known Pacific Northwest artists including Jacob Lawrence and Dale Chihuly.
In the late 1990's, Lovelace wound down his printmaking career and transitioned to painting full-time. In 2001, he began to experiment with the revival of a technique of painting with oil on copper plates, which had its roots in 15th century Renaissance art. The reflective copper enhanced the luminous quality of the oils and provided a warm undertone to subtly shift colors and convey atmospheric effects. Inspired by landscapes and birds in France, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, and the Pacific Northwest, Lovelace created works that captured the harmony between people and nature in lands cultivated for thousands of years. Prior to his transition to oil on copper, he spent decades honing his skills with watercolors and produced many masterful works, with his most notable subjects being landscapes and koi ponds. Lovelace earned a BFA from the University of Colorado in 1976 and an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Washington in 1979 under Jacob Lawrence and Glen Alps. That year, he founded Stone Press Editions in Seattle, serving as Master Printer and collaborating with renowned North American, Japanese, and European artists. Over 100 private and public institutions have collected Lovelace's prints and paintings, including Safeco, Boeing, Nordstrom, Swedish and Providence Hospitals, and Preston Thorgrimson Ellis & Holman. He was also a sought-after guest lecturer on art and printmaking at numerous museums and universities in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to his painting and printmaking, Lovelace was a skilled homebuilder and woodworker. He renovated two craftsmen style homes in the Seattle area and designed and built two custom homes from scratch on Whidbey Island, in Washington. Kent was an avid outdoorsman, downhill skier, and adventurer. He fathered three sons, one of whom became an internationally acclaimed custom surfboard builder. He passed away in 2017. |