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Roy Kerswill (1925 - 2002) |
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Born in Devon, England, Roy Kerswill came
to the United States via Canada when he sailed a cedar canoe in river
waters from Canada to New Orleans, on a yearlong trip. This made him
aware of pioneer experiences and heritage, the subject of most of his
paintings. He has written a book titled "A Pictorial Story of the
Oregon-California Trail," the result of six years of research and
painting along the Oregon Trail. Roy has worked in both oil and
watercolor and his subjects include western historical scenes and
landscapes of the rugged and picturesque Teton Mountain Range in
Wyoming. Roy was a precociously gifted young boy and he received a scholarship to the Bristol College of Art when only eleven years of age. From 1946-1948, Roy served three years in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. He then traveled to Canada and worked his way East to West as a laborer, an assistant engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, a cowboy for a Calgary rancher and on a highway survey crew in Whitehorse, Yukon. In 1950 Kerswill and a friend canoed down the Columbia River into the United States and up the Snake River to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, their journey making a story interesting to newspapers along the way. His destiny was sealed upon seeing and struggling through the incredible scenery. Kerswill lived in Jackson Hole for many years before moving to Polson, Montana, late in his life. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, as well as Senator Barry Goldwater, Laurence Rockefeller and actors Burt Reynolds and Dick Van Dyke collected Kerswills paintings. Kerswill once described why he was an artist. "I paint with the same need as I eat. I paint because it is an adventure into something strange and beautiful. I paint because it is pleasurable; like smelling the rain, touching a child, loving a woman, singing to the wind or listening to the hushed roar of the wind in the forest. As I strive to reach and understand this thing, I become attuned or embed with something very beautiful, and it is this exciting sensation which drives me on." Source: |
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If you are interested in
finding out more information about this artist or their artwork, please see
our Contact page.
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