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Ken Howard was born in 1932 in industrial north London, the son of a factory worker. His parents nourished his early artistic talent and when a neighbour displayed the eight-year-old Howard's paintings in his Fleet Street butcher's shop and an art critic wrote the fledgling painter an encouraging note, he set his heart on becoming an artist. "My headmaster kept writing reports saying that I needed to realise there was more to life than art," Howard says. "A local bank manager tried to convince me to be an architect because that was a "proper job" with security and a pension. But in my lifetime, everything that was supposed to be secure has collapsed: even bank managers lose their jobs and pensions are worthless. I've made my fortune and travelled the world doing what I love. As Ruskin said, "if a man finds what he wants to do in this life, let him ask no greater blessing.""
Ken Howard studied at Hornsey School of Art from 1949 to 1953. He did his National Service with the Royal Marines before returning to study at the Royal College of Art from 1955 to 1958. He went on to win a British Council Scholarship to Florence from 1958 to 1959.
Howard's first one-man show was held at the Plymouth Art Centre in 1955. Subsequent exhibitions were held in 1966 and 1968 at the John Whibley Gallery. He has exhibited extensively, both nationally and internationally, particularly with the New Grafton Gallery from the early 1970s. He was given a retrospective in 1972 at the Plymouth City Art Gallery and in 1973 and 1979 was appointed by the Imperial War Museum as official artist in Northern Ireland. He also worked with the British Army in Germany, Cyprus, Oman, Hong Kong, Nepal, Norway, Canada, Belize and Brunei from 1973 to 1982.
Howard was elected a member of the New English Art Club in 1962, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1966, the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours in 1979, the Royal West of England Academy 1981, Honorary Member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1988, Royal Academician in 1991 and President of the New English Art Club in 1998. Among his numerous awards are First Prize in the Lord Mayor's Art Award in 1966, a Prize Winner in the John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool in 1978, first prize in the Hunting Group Awards and the Critics Prize at Sparkasse Karlsruhe in 1985. Ken Howard lives and works in London.
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