John Kingerlee was born in Birmingham, England in 1936. After living for twenty years in Cornwall in the far southwest of Britain, he moved in 1982 to an isolated farmhouse on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork.

Whether by chance or design, Kingerlee decision to go west, leaving behind a predominantly Anglo Saxon environment in preference for the wild scenery of Europes most westerly shores, saw him following in the footsteps of the great Celtic Revival artists and writers of the early 20th Century, and just like his fore-bears, he has found this place of rocks, seas and majestic skies where nothing is static, to be a source of continuous spiritual invigoration.

In this setting, looking directly out from his home across Kenmare Bay to the ring of Kerry, John and his wife Mo lead a life which some might describe as lonely. The Challenge that faces John every day is one of making his paint reflect his experience of nature as a dynamic all encompassing unity that extends to Man and his inner thoughts and feelings.

For John, engaging with nature is a multi-sensory experience of being supremely in tune with what is happening around, above and below him. Of sensing geological time, the hardness or softness of the ground, the moods and colours of the sea. As if viewing it through holistic spectacles. As part of a larger whole that includes the winds, the tides and the ever shifting light.

In the studio, using his own made up pigments, he mimics the cycle of growth and decay by working with matter in a very direct and hands-on way. He applies colours, deep pools of it, red brick, reds, molten silver and zinc, platinum and titanium, sulphuric yellows and so much more to dozens of paintings in various states of becoming. He paints standing up applying a new layer of paint (finished paintings will comprise of fifty to one hundred or more layers of paint applied over a period of several years and when completed can take up to five months to dry out). His preferred tools are palette knives (one in each hand is the norm), and a decorator's brush which he holds vertically using a stippling technique. Anyone privileged enough to watch, is struck by the analogy with gardening, for the artist tends his pictures with the same care and devotion.
His mixed media, drawings, ceramics and collage are all handled with immense skill, for he loves to experiment and push his materials to their limits, right to the very edge.
His work literally fizzles with energy as if seen through the eyes of a child creating friendly innocent like beings, goblins and animals from a cosmic world.

Knowing the man and his art, one is impelled to conclude that Kingerlee has re-invented the pictorial landscape in a way that seems to have few, if any, parallels in contemporary art.

The Beara Peninsula

Kingerlee lives with his wife Mo on the Beara Peninsula, Ireland. Beara, how the word resonates, it echoes with bear, in the naked sense, which it is; and even the animal makes sense in the context, big, dark, fascinating and unpredictable.
In Irish it is derived from point, something sharp, undoubtedly a topographical word, like so many in Irish, describing the lie of the land. It could also be cognate with an Old Irish word for water, which is indeed apt for this ancient and very beautiful peninsula.

Kingerlee has become part of this landscape, he has grown in to it, and he has permeated it with a keen eye and an intense affection. He perceives and feels the very pith and presence of it all. His studio hangs even further out than the house itself, leaning out to take full advantage of the views, not afraid of the angle, or the constant crashing of the waves beneath.

Kingerlee has had several solo exhibitions at the Leinster Gallery, the most recent of which took place in February 2006 and coincided with a book launch on the artist's life and work by Jonathan Benington.

Kingerlee has exhibited widely across Ireland as well as in Dallas, Texas, Montreal, Canada and New York. His work features in the prestigious collections of Sir Anthony & Lady O'Reilly, President William Jefferson Clinton & Senator Hilary Rodman Clinton.

An exhibition of works by John kingerlee is currently on tour in the United States and will be displayed in twelve Museums over the next two years