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 As "America's Best Known Living Folk Artist," Warren Kimble
draws on more than 40 years of experience as a fine artist, teacher,
collector, craftsman and antiques dealer to create a casual but
sophisticated style of American Folk Art.
Warren is
best known for his paintings of highly stylized animals and rural Vermont
scenes using antique architectural wood as his canvas. His subjects and
whimsical style evoke the spirit of the tranquil Vermont
countryside.
His unique palette and his distinctive
eye for detail combine with the antique texture of the wood to create a
pleasing, enduring art that has attracted a wide following of collectors
nationally and internationally.
 Warren is also the design leader for the Folk
Art trend in home furnishings, giftware, textiles and tabletop. With
nearly forty licensees, he represents the best of this traditional and
accessible style, which has taken the market by
storm.
As a fine artist, Warren has held one-man
shows at the Frank J. Miele Gallery in New York, the Chase Gallery in
Boston, and numerous galleries in Vermont, including Gallery on the Green
in Woodstock.
Graduated from Syracuse University with
a Fine Arts Degree in 1957, Warren has lived in Vermont for more than 30
years. He and his wife Lorraine operate Kimble House, Inc., in a group of
restored 19th century farm buildings that include Warren's studio, a
gallery, gift shop, showroom and office.
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Warren Kimble shares a 200-year-old
barn with cows, sheep, chickens and pigs. A few fish, too.
This is a fairly quiet group of livestock, and they smell
more of paint and turpentine than sweet molasses grain.
Warren's sunny refurbished barn studio is the perfect
atmosphere in which to create his well-loved folk
paintings. Landscapes, barns, florals and seascapes also
flow from his brush onto the old salvaged wood he uses as
a canvas. Various whimsical antiques and old
signs create a mood that enables Warren to inhabit the
world he paints. A swing hangs from the rafters and
suggests that this is an artist who enjoys some fun. Rows
of colorful antique sand pails indicate an eclectic taste
in collecting. This fun shows itself in paintings like
"Vermont Cow," where the black and white Holstein pattern
is in the shape of the state. There are other hidden
treasures to be found for the highly observant viewer.
On beginning a new painting, Warren
carefully chooses a piece of
antique wood. The quality of the wood influences the
composition he has in mind since knots, textures and marks
in the wood are not disguised by the paint. Then a new
image takes shape: rolling hills with sun-tinged grasses,
a classic lighthouse, a humble farmhouse.
Warren has developed and evolved his highly stylized
folk imagery throughout his life. His background in
education and art led him to an interest in antiques and
Early American Folk Art. So a barn is the most fitting
place for this unique artist to create his masterful
works. And as long as the rooster crows in the morning, he
will continue to do so. |
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