Kevin Geary (born 1952) is an English portrait and abstract artist and poet. Some of his works are in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, London,[ and Arundells.][
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Biography
Early life
Geary was born in 1952
Three generations of Geary's family,[ including his Irish][ grandfather and great-grandfather,][ were marine artists.][
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In 1966, at the age 14, Geary won an award from the Royal Drawing Society of Great Britain.[
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Career
Although good at art and playing the piano, Geary's ambition as a child was to be a political cartoonist.[ Geary contacted Leslie Gilbert Illingworth a political cartoonist for the Daily Mail and Punch. Illingworth encouraged with the words "It's difficult, but genius will out."][ His first job,][ at the age of 19,][ That cartoon is in the Arundells collection. Geary's work for the Financial Times came to an end due to artistic differences.][
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After working for the Financial Times Geary worked for an advertising agency.[
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Geary's first one-man show was opened in 1972[ by the next prime minister, Harold Wilson][
Wilson personally presented a Geary portrait of Golda Meir to her on a visit to Israel soon after the one-man show.][
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In 1973 Geary had painting lessons with Carel Weight and also studied colour theory and anatomy.[
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Geary's poetry writing started in the 1970s after he was encouraged by Stephen Spender who read one of his poems in London.[
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In 1975 drawings by Geary of the Stations of the Cross were installed[ in the Catholic Church of Christ the Eternal High Priest, Gidea Park.][ The drawings now hang in the Merici Hall of St John Payne Catholic School in Chelmsford, Essex.]
In the mid 1970s Geary was in Ireland living in Waterford and Dublin[ where he held one of his early one man shows at the Setanta Gallery.][
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On 1 February 1982 a portrait by Geary of the pianist Ivor Newton was unveiled by Edward Heath at the Wigmore Hall.[
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Geary lived in Paris in 1983/1984.[
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In 1986 Geary moved to the United States of America, first living in Seattle, Washington, then Los Angeles, California (1987-1989), San Francisco, California (1989-1998), Hudson, New York (1998/1999) and Scottsdale, Arizona (1999).[
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In 2003 Geary exhibited at the Cathedral Center for the Arts in Phoenix, Arizona.
Geary moved to Sedona, Arizona in 2000,[ and moved to the nearby Village of Oak Creek, Arizona, in 2008. Some of his abstract work was exhibited in Jerome, Arizona, in September of that year.][
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Geary read from his book Paris and Other Poems at the Sedona Arts Center on 6 August 2010.[
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Portraits
Geary's portraits include those of Vladimir Ashkenazy,[ Count Basie,][ Leonard Bernstein,][ Jack Brymer,][ Cyril Cusack,][ Plácido Domingo,][ Duke Ellington,][ Ella Fitzgerald,][ Dizzy Gillespie,][ Lord Goodman,][ Senator John McCain,][ Golda Meir,][ Princess Michael of Kent,][ Ivor Newton,][ Seán O'Casey,][ Pope John Paul II,][ John Williams, and Harold Wilson.][
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Geary's portraits are made using graphite on Fabriano paper.[
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Geary's portrait of London Symphony clarinettist Jack Brymer is in the primary collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.[
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Membership
Geary is a member of the Contemporary Portrait Society.[
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Bibliography
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