Moray artist Kenneth Le Riche wins prize in major exhibition
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
CHRISTMAS has come early for one Forres-based artist – who is celebrating winning a prize in a major exhibition in Edinburgh.
Kenneth Le Riche (58) has been named as winner of the John Busby Award at the 141st Open Annual Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW).
The exhibition, at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, features more than 350 paintings, including work by some of Scotland's top artists.
Kenneth won the £500 prize, which is made in memory of the celebrated wildlife artist John Busby, for his painting "Space as Artifice with Durer's Rhino".
He said: "When I heard about the award, I was absolutely delighted.
"I've been painting since my late twenties but teaching is my bread and butter."
He said the painting was partly inspired by a woodcut of a rhino by the German artist Albrecht Durer in 1515, drawn from the description of an Indian rhinoceros which had arrived in Lisbon.
Later that year, the animal died in a shipwreck having been sent by the King of Portugal as a gift for the Pope.
Kenneth said: "The poor rhino had an awful life, captured, brought to Europe and then drowned in a shipwreck.
"I think we're all more and more aware of human interactions with the planet, nature and animals, and that we're not doing very well.
"I'm also interested in why something is considered beautiful or not beautiful, whether Western linear perspective is a social construct. Research suggests that it is, and people from different cultures see depth in a different way. All of that feeds into my paintings."
Kenneth took a degree in mechanical engineering after leaving school, but discovered a passion for art in his twenties. He studied for a degree at Edinburgh College of Art, then at the New York Academy of Art, where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts with distinction in 2003.
He has exhibited widely in the UK and overseas, and has undertaken artist residencies in New York, Norway and Jordan.
Kenneth's painting is on display in Edinburgh until December 27 (closed 25 and 26). A selection of the work is also being shown online at www.rsw.org.uk.
