Kes Woodward's 'Daybreak' is KUAC's 2017 poster
March 7, 2017
Kes Woodward’s “Daybreak,” which beautifully and uniquely captures the magical light of the boreal forest, is KUAC’s 2017 poster.
To get your poster signed by Woodward, plan to be at Well Street Art Co. between noon and 4 p.m. Saturday, April 1. There will be refreshments and opportunities to mingle with other supporters of KUAC, the University of Alaska Fairbanks' public radio and television station.
This is KUAC’s 34th poster and the first featuring Woodward's work. He said his heart leapt at the prospect of one of his paintings becoming a KUAC poster. “I am so utterly delighted and deeply honored,” Woodward said.
“When people who don't know my work ask me what I paint, I tell them I make big abstract paintings that happen to look like birch trees," Woodward said when asked to describe his style. "Most people who do know my work would say I paint birch trees, or the North woods, or, since I paint mountains, rivers, seas, glaciers, skies and falling snow almost as much as the forest, might simply say that I paint landscapes of Alaska and the circumpolar North.
“Really, no matter which of those subjects I'm painting, my work is all about light — the extraordinary light of every season, here in the North.”
Born in Aiken, South Carolina, in 1951, Woodward earned a bachelor's degree in art at Davidson College and a master's of fine art at Idaho State University. He moved to Alaska in 1977, and served as curator of visual arts at the Alaska State Museum and as artistic director of the Visual Arts Center of Alaska before moving to Fairbanks in 1981. He is a professor emeritus of art at UAF, where he taught for two decades, serving as chair of the Art Department and chair of the Division of Arts and Communications. He serves on the board of the Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation and on the board of trustees of the Western States Arts Federation.
Woodward's paintings are included in all major public art collections in Alaska and in museum, corporate and private collections on both coasts of the United States. Solo exhibits to his credit include the Morris Museum of Art, University of Alaska Museum, Alaska State Museum and the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. Juried and invitational exhibitions including his work have ranged from Alaska to Brazil and Russia.
Also an art historian and curator, Woodward has published six books on Alaska art, including the first comprehensive survey of the fine arts in Alaska, “Painting in the North,” and “A Northern Adventure: The Art of Fred Machetanz.”
In 2004, Woodward received the Alaska Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts, and in 2012 he received the Rasmuson Foundation Distinguished Alaskan Artist Fellowship.
For more information, call 474-1890.