Paul Kessling  

Paul Kessling   Born 1965  Dundee  Scotland

Education           

Royal College of Art      Fine Art  Sculpture  MA      1989-91 Assistant to Sir Eduardo Paolozzi  'Isaac Newton Series' 

Wimbledon School of Art   Fine Art Sculpture  BA  

Goldsmiths College Fine Arts Foundation Course 

AWARD

1989 RCA Travel Scholarship; Easter Island

 Born into the Nineties generation of Emin and Hirst,  Paul Kessling is as remote from the short-shock spectacle of Brit-Art as he could possibly be.  He was training as a sculptor under Eduardo Paolozzi at the Royal College of Art and was on a travelling scholarship to study the Easter Island statues when his career took an unexpected swerve.  Kessling hadn't much room for materials in his rucksack and had picked up some bottles of ink en route.  Back in England,he began to experiment with Japanese brushes and pure cotton paper, finding the true subject for his new technique when he moved to the Oxfordshire countryside.  Paul Kessling is a graduate of the Royal College of Art.

 PRESS:

The Palace of Westminster commissioned Paul Kessling to paint a series of work in the style of  the 1930's Transport Posters. The selected  work is now on permanent exhibition at Fielden House  - The House of Lords.

KESSLING VS KESSLING 2009/10

If you want to track down Kate or PaulKessling at work in the Oxfordshire home that they share with their three daughters, two dogs, eight hamsters, ten silkies, three ducks and a cat and five hives of bees - your best bet is to use your ears.

If it’s Kate you want, head for the loud music. If you pause for a few moments, you’ll realise that it’s the same track on repeat, again and again. This year, the chances are it will be The Dandy Warhols’ Bohemian Like You. It’s already clocked up 900 plays on her iPod since January.

 

Paul, who studied for his Sculpture MA under Eduardo Paolozzi at the Royal Academy of Art in the 1980s, will most likely be keeping company with John le Carre’s audio book back catalogue, probably in front of his new Italian studio easel, working in oils.

On the other hand, you might not be able find Paul at all. He might have hopped into his Land Rover and headed off to the Ridgeway. The Ridgeway is, observes Kate wryly, his equivalent of the garden shed. It’s where he goes when everything else gets too much. But it has also been the source of great inspiration for Paul’s work and where he has committed to paper so many of his distinctive landscapes.

They have tried using headphones, to keep each other’s preferred accompaniment at bay, but they found it difficult to talk, and whilst working in the same space has its practical difficulties, it also has huge compensations. Talking is undoubtedly one of them. They think nothing of debating an exact shade of black for hours, and they are blessed in that their styles and influences differ so greatly (Rembrandt, Corot and Titian for Paul, Gerhardt Richter for Kate) that they find it easy to talk about each other’s work without fear that their ideas may overlap.

A glance through their back catalogues bears this out. Where Paul’s style has been developing for almost twenty years, Kate radically reinvents her approach to her art every two to three years. Paul is, by nature, intellectual and meticulous. If he hadn’t been an artist he might well have followed his grandfather’s wishes and become a surgeon.

Kate's approach is more serendipitous. Her close-up photography of buttons resulted from spending so long on a single piece (which involved stitching over 3000 buttons to a backboard), she was left with only ten days to complete the rest of the work required for a recent exhibition. She considers the results some of her most successful work ever.   There are other differences too. Paul can produce large splashy abstracts using colossal brushes and a vast amount of colours but leave no mess. When Kate uses paint, it goes everywhere, including the floor, the children and the pets.   But for the most part, living and working together creates a space in which they can both succeed as artists.   Kessling Vs Kessling it seems, is just the beginning.   Modern Artists Gallery will be presenting the new collection of works by Paul Kessling and Kate Kessling.   The gallery is open Wednesday – Saturday, 10 am - 6pm, and by appointment at other times.

Information on materials used:
Pure cotton rag acid-free watercolour paper. Mount board is acid free and all work is mounted using conservation tape.

Framing:
The frames are made from French Oak (a sustainable resource) and glazed with Conservation glass which cuts out harmful Ultra Violet light.

Care:
As with all works on paper, paintings should not be exposed to direct sunlight. Similarly they should not be positioned in such a way that condensation could form on the glass.
All pictures are mounted in off-white acid free mount board. The dimensions quoted on the website are the external size of the mount. The mount is approximately 10cm. larger than the painting on all sides.