Me & My Art Monday: Meet Keith Wilkie

This week’s featured artist:  Keith Wilkie, member since 2012:

ME:  I’ve been painting since I was very young.  I paint in my home studio in McLean, VA as well as in our 2nd home in Surfside Beach, SC.  I’ve had a long career in corporate and international real estate, with the last 23 years in the U.S.Department of State. Having recently retired as the Department’s Senior Real Estate Advisor, I’m now a part-time international real estate consultant/advisor for the Department of State while spending more time painting. I’ve exhibited work in galleries and museums in New York, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Oregon, Wisconsin, California and the Carolinas and I’ve been featured in “ѐlan” magazine, “American Art Collector,” “Southwest Art Magazine” and “Art Galleries and Artists of the South”.

MY ART:  Self-taught, I generally paint coastal scenes, landscapes and waterway subjects in either acrylics or oil. My grandmother had a print of Winslow Homer’s “Breezing Up” over her mantel and that scene pulled me in for as long as I can remember. Water is definitely part of my soul, and it’s usually the salty variety. I grew up fishing and boating with my grandfather and dad on the beaches and waterways of the Carolinas. As an adult I spent years sailing in the Carolinas, in Charleston harbor and offshore, along the coast and the Chesapeake Bay, where I lived on my sailboat for a time. I’m sure that in a prior life I was a pirate, fisherman or lowly crewman on some sailing vessel. I can sit for hours and simply watch the water – whether rough or calm, sparkling from the sun or dark in the night, ocean or stream, lake or pond. It’s calming for me – no matter what the circumstances. I try to capture those feelings and their colors when I paint, regardless of the subject. Visit my website: www.keithwilkieart.com.

MFA & ME:  Now having retired from my desk job, I hope to increase participation and explore the many opportunities offered through MFA.

 

Spread the word about…YOU:   Every week, we feature an MFA member for “Me & My Art Monday.” If you would like to be featured, please submit a photo and three paragraphs: one each about YOU, YOUR ART, and MFA & YOU totaling approximately 350 words, to meandmyart@mdfedart.org.