KEN AUSTER
For it was in his formative years in Long Beach,
California, where Ken grew up with his feet deeply
planted in the surfing culture, that he first learned to
express his art talent. Caught up in the ground swell of
the 1960s surfing culture, Ken not only plunged into the
sport of surfing but into the art and graphics of surfing as
well.
While working his way towards a Bachelor in Fine Arts
degree from Long Beach State University, Ken built one
of the world's most prominent silkscreen and T-shirt
companies, creating now-legendary surfing art that
adorned surfers from Belmont Shores to Hawaii to
Mexico. His surfing images, silk-screened as original
prints on paper, became the "fine art" of this beach
culture, and today, represent the classic surf art of the
past century.
At the heart of Ken's work was always the awareness of
the fine line between man-made and nature. In the mid-
1990s, Ken moved to a more serious art level - involving
him with the immediacy of oil paints as opposed to the
process-burdened medium of printmaking. Throwing
himself into the splendor of "plein air" (on location)
painting, Ken discovered the richness and broad colors
of the city life he long avoided. As he will tell you, he
rejoiced in this newfound ability to paint anything and
everything - cafes, train stations, airports, street scenes,
and of course, never far away, was the beach, his first
love.
The transition from surf art to serious impressionism
was natural for Ken - his passion and obsession to
reach a new understanding between himself and the oil
painting medium took on a new intensity of discovery. "I
simply want to achieve the ultimate communication on
the canvas - to say more with less," Ken says.
His deft use of color. His economies of brush strokes.
His simple, yet beautifully structured compositions. As
one famous critic described - "each painting captures a
moment in time charged with a hint of narrative drama.
And each is rendered with such vibrant immediacy that a
single glance excites other senses as well."
Ken's passion for painting is shared with hundreds of
students who each year travel from around the world to
attend his workshops in Laguna Beach and Carmel. With
his wife, Paulette Martinson, they have a thriving art world
centered at their studio and gallery in picturesque
Laguna Canyon.
In a relatively short time since this transition to plein air
painting, Ken Auster has moved to the forefront of
American contemporary impressionists. He consistently
walks away with gold medals and first place awards at
juried exhibits. His work is collected by some of the most
respected corporations and patrons.
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PUBLICATIONS:
ARTIST’S MAGAZINE, “A MEETING OF THE MINDS“ 2006
AMERICAN ARTIST; Workshop Issue, “ADVENTURES IN
PLAIN AIR PAINTING“, Daniel Grant, Spring, 2006
BEACH CITIES STYLE, March, 2006
ART & ANTIQUES, “EMERGING ARTIST”, 2003
COAST, “THE ART OF COMMUNITY”, August 2002
LOS ANGELES TIMES, “SOCIAL CIRCUTS” Sunday 2002
COASTLINE PILOT 2002
THE SURFER’S JOURNAL, “FIRST CLASS: THE STORY
BEHIND THE DUKE STAMP”
SOUTHWEST ART, “NOTES FROM THE WEST” 2002
THE NEW FILMORE, “NEW FILMORE ART, KEN AUSTER:
SLICES OF LIFE“, FEBRUARY 2002
Education:
California State University, Long Beach, CA
Juried Exhibitions Selected:
2002 Laguna Art Museum Lincoln Plein Air Painting
Invitational, Laguna Beach, CA "1st Place"
2002 Laguna Art Museum Lincoln Plein Air Painting
Invitational, Laguna Beach, CA
"Honorable Mention"
2002 "Carmel Plein-Air Invitational Carmel, CA
"First Place"
Affiliations
California Art Club, Pasadena, CA (Signature Member)
Laguna Plein-Air Painters Association, Laguna Beach, CA
(Signature Member)
Oil Painters of America, Park Ridge, IL
The Plein-Air Painters of America, Santa Fe, NM
(Signature Member)
Museum Exhibitions:
2007 from the heart haggin museum Stockton, CA
2003 "Salond Arts' Colorado History Museum, Denver
2002 "Surf Culture, The Art History of Surfing" Laguna Art
Museum, CA
2002 "Collectors Choice"The Bakersfield Museum, CA
1999 "Surfin' Art Exhibition" SO. Texas Museum of Art,
Corpus Christi, TX
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