Ken Prescott was born in London, Ontario in 1938 and attended the Danforth Technical School in Toronto. He has worked as an advertising designer, art director and freelance graphic designer between his travels throughout the Far East, Southeast Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and the South Pacific.
He has been exhibiting his works for over 50 years in both solo and group exhibitions throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico and the Bahamas. In 1975, he moved to Vancouver and soon after was elected to senior member status and a chairman of The Federation of Canadian Artists.
“Everything in Ken Prescott’s work evolves from papers covered with paint that start out on the studio floor an are later “assembled” to form a likeness.”
His works are included in more than 100 elite corporate and private collections throughout Canada and the US including: Air Canada, The Royal Bank, Bank of America, Bank of Montreal, Bendorf Verster, BC Hydro, CIBC, Coldwell Banker, Fletcher Challenge, Japan Airlines, London Life, Pan Pacific Hotels, Peat Marwick, Vancouver Aquarium, Simon Fraser University, The Law Courts and IBM Canada.
Ken Prescott writes – “Collage, with all the tangible textural qualities I so enjoy, has become my chosen medium. The excitement of papers of every colour, texture and pattern, the suggestive qualities that allow me to “build” my paintings, the juxtaposition of these elements which creates the sensuous interplay of form and colour – all this gives me the freest, most spontaneous expression I know and a much greater pleasure as a painter than pigment on a palette.”
Ken Prescott achieves his effects by applying acrylic polymer paints directly on paper, using almost any means that will give him the texture he is looking for – brush, knife, sprayer, trowel, roller. The results are mounted on either 4-ply rag board, masonite or stretched canvas using acrylic polymer adhesive. Two coats of acrylic matte varnish permanently seal the work.
Everything in Ken Prescott’s work evolves from papers covered with paint that start out on the studio floor an are later “assembled” to form a likeness. They then become an integral part of the collage as portions are removed from the paper they were painted on and placed in the context demanded by the specific work.
It is easy to see that his work is as much about the texture of things as it is about using texture to reveal what things are and how their various textures relate, compliment and contrast to and with each other in the interplay of form and colour.
Collage literally means ‘sticking’, putting one thing on another, making something new and different out of other things. Ken Prescott’s collages give us a new way of looking at the familiar and expected. They enable us to see and feel in equally new ways. Vivid and strong, they are continuously revealing.”
Anthony Robertson, Vancouver
