He says, "When I try to supplement my ego into the work, it never works. If I simply facilitate the ego of the subject and allow the painting to be itself---these are the ones that satisfy. I don't know what the painting is going to be until it is finished. I paint until it vibrates some truth/reality to me. There is no trickery in my painting. There are no hidden meanings. They are exactly what they appear to be. They are pictures."

Painting was something he always wanted to do. "I knew one day I'd have the courage to pick up a paintbrush and paint." He spent hours in the Musee d’Orcy, asking himself, "How does one do that?" He craved to create such beauty, but was afraid to try. He now believes the creative hunger to be a part of painting was being fulfilled by his songwriting.

Kieran was given a set of oil paints in 1998, and left them untouched for six months. Coincidentally, the album he released that year was titled Six Months, No Sun. The album's undertone was quite dark, reflecting a difficult time in his personal life. Painting, the thing he at first feared, proved to be the way for him to emerge from that dark time. So, without any schooling or training, he started painting in September 1998.

Own It Yourself!

The Blue Chair Limited Edition Print by Kieran Kane Offered exclusively by K. Cecil Gallery Add to or begin your art collection with a piece by musician/artist Kieran Kane. The Blue Chair is the first piece of Kieran's artwork to be released. The original oil was painted by Kieran in 2000. He used the painting for the cover art on his CD, The Blue Chair. Each print is hand signed; only 500 prints were made. The price of this ready to frame, 16" x 20" print is $25. US postage is included; please add $5.00 for shipping and handling for Canada and Europe. To place an order, send your request to: kcecil44@aol.com Print will be mailed within one week of receiving payment.

Kieran's approach to painting is similar to his songwriting. "With writing I face a blank legal pad; in painting it is a blank canvas. In writing, my medium is words; with painting it is color." Primarily, he paints from photographs; he has also done a few self-portraits using a mirror.

He paints mostly people, although his portfolio contains a few landscapes. He chooses people who interest him, finding something in the subject that speaks to him. Then he tries to translate that to a canvas, in order to tell the viewer something about who or what that person is. One trio of paintings--"The Hungarians"--was painted from photos in a New York Times Magazine article on Polish Revolutionary men. However, Kieran saw the faces of his Hungarian uncles in the photos, having grown up in a first generation Hungarian family of aunts and uncles on his mother’s side.

He finds some subjects on his travels, as his music takes him around the world, and he always takes a camera along. One of his most moving paintings is of a homeless man from Sydney. Kieran noticed the man sitting on a red park bench. Most of his face was severely scarred; part of his nose was missing. Yet, Kieran captured a gentleness and humility of the sandy-haired man, sitting with hands clasped, feet crossed. The beauty of the man’s soul shines through on the canvas.

In the four years since he first picked up a paintbrush, Kieran has done over 90 paintings. He's shown in galleries in Nashville, New York City and Lexington, Kentucky, and several of his paintings have won awards. Painting has reinforced his belief that the reward and joy is in the work and not the result. He says, "If after I am finished with a painting and it pleases me, that’s success. If someone else likes it, it’s icing on the cake." For his recent album, The Blue Chair, he used his own oil painting of the same title for the cover. The two arts and his two passions, writing and painting, met--completing the circle.