ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES - KEITH WICKS

Keith Wicks always wanted to be an artist even as a child growing up in Bakersfield, California. "If it were not for art and athletics in high school, I wouldn’t have done well at all," he confesses. "I just didn’t fit in. I was always drawing in class." His grandfather enrolled him in an art class taught by a woman who rarely accepted children as art students. She made the exception for Wicks, though, because she was impressed by his artistic abilities. In the 6th grade he entered several city-wide art contests, and won a blue ribbon for one his works—the first recognition he received for his art.

After high school, Wicks attended a junior college, where a painting instructor urged him to go on to art school. Instead, he opened his own business, working in graphics and doing whatever he could to earn a living by drawing. He built a successful advertising business, but realized he wasn’t going where he wanted. At age 30 he enrolled in the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Later, he taught figure painting and drawing for several years at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.

Although he continues to exhibit work in several galleries, last year Wicks opened his own gallery, Vermilion Art in Sonoma, California. The founding member of the Sonoma Plein Air Group, Wicks frequently paints on location in the United States. In addition to Vermilion Art, Wicks is represented in California by Powell Street Gallery, William Torphy Fine Arts, and Win Henstock Gallery.