About The Art ~ and The Artist

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 Kevin Ducoing lives in West Seattle. He has lived in Washington since 1982 when his family left California and put down roots in the Pacific Northwest. Kevin
immediately felt the draw of PNW aesthetic; damp, but clean and crisp...and most times a bit more monochromatic. 

His work reflects what may be the Pacific Northwest mindset: infusion of gray skies, dark forests, sounds muted by ancient beds of pine needles, and local lore brimming with ghost stories. Kevin feels acutely the interaction of this aesthetic in the small towns that dot the landscape and push up against or raze ancient  forest. His desire is to express this duality with the feeling that it is actually we who are the ghost stories, the local lore, and that the landscape has its own stories about us.

 Our interaction with trees and forests runs deep in our existence. Where we are pleased to experience two or three generations of people, a tree easily experiences five, ten or more generations of people. 

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The paintings with houses in them - a series named 'They Came in Peace', "They Came in Peace" can be spoken as plain fact, a question, or as a wry commentary of our interaction with the land on which we live. Imagining our most obvious legacy -our homes, our neighborhoods, our towns- as experienced from the landscape's point of view, what if the land itself could tell the tale of us, the people. Are we just part of the overall surrounding landscape? Are we an invasion, or threat? In this collection, our presence in the world can be imagined as a flying house moving through the landscape, as from a ghost story, or a science fiction movie.

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Another series with houses untethered from the ground and drifting through landscapes is a newer series titled 'The Blue House.' The pieces attempt to personalize the many feelings we experience around the subject of transitioning, or pulling up roots and moving into unfamiliar places.

People express themselves daily without necessarily knowing it. This is what I am attempting to capture with my paintings that feature a human form. The tension or apprehension that comes with transition or upheaval is the main drive of my figurative themes. I am attempting to convey this with strong edges and simplified shapes, and the underlying texture (a byproduct of the initial canvas prep) representing consciousness.

I currently have two collections of figurative works, and one overall gallery of figurative work: 'Understanding the Rules of Falling,'  •  'Where You Go.' and Figurative Work