More images coming soon for the show opening March 8, 2024.
Kevin LePrince
After spending 12 years in the securities brokerage industry, LePrince left his position as a vice president with Wachovia Securities in 2003 to pursue painting full-time for one year. Fortunately one year became over a decade and none of it ever described as “work.”
LePrince's paintings are reflective of his native home, Charleston, South Carolina. The majority of his impressionist landscapes capture that late afternoon feeling of being on the water. His affinity for this dates back to afternoons after high school spent water skiing in the creeks and rivers of John's & James Island. Many of the works are reminiscent of the way in which time flies by and in the process steals the light from the day. Such landscapes hang in several prestigious country clubs and other prominent collections, including the entrance at the Wexford Plantation House on Hilton Head Island.
LePrince's stylized culinary paintings can be seen in many fine restaurants. One recently became the center piece for the New England Center for Art and Technology (NECAT) in Boston, Massachusetts. Figurative work, though not a common subject, always provides a source of inspiration along with new challenges and opportunities for growth.
LePrince breaths a sense of personality into his depictions of wildlife, marine life and other critters with bold brush strokes and luscious texture. Giving life to blank canvases remains the goal behind every work of art. Observers of his art often times see the characters in them as clearly as they see the individual members of their own family. The thick and luminous nature of the oil paint combined with his impressionist painting style infuses a sense of cheer and family into both the works and the walls they adorn. The Ocean Room inside Kiawah's esteemed 5 star Sanctuary, Figure Eight Island Club, and Bald Head Island Club all have several such paintings in their permanent collections.
In 2013 LePrince broke fundraising records at the Huntsville Museum of Art as their featured artist, selling over 20 paintings in one night. Unforgettable' is the only word to describe the event. In addition to being made an honorary citizen of Huntsville, a new connection with winemaker Bjoern Lawner was formed to bring this sense of 'unforgettable' to wine labeling. The first of these new labels can be seen on a bottle bearing the artist's name, “LePrince". It features a single egret. The “LePrince” wine is a red from the Cotes Du Rhone region of France. With an award of 91 points from Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate, this is one of the best 2012 wines from the region. Nationally, it is available through The Fresh Market. To read more on this wine please visit the Ingenium Wines website. Lanwer and LePrince are currently collaborating on future wines and labels respectively.
American Art Collector, Southwest Art, the Art Mag, and other publications have all featured LePrince in their pages through the years. Though born in 1971, the artist has family with deep roots in the world of painting. Both Jean-Baptiste LePrince and August-Xavier LePrince became noted painters of the late 18th and early 19th century. Today their works hang in the museums around the world including The Louvre in Paris and the Getty in Los Angeles, California.