Brian Keeler
Brian Keeler
2022 marked Brian Keeler’s 30th year at West End Gallery! Brian was most recently featured in our May/June 2023 exhibit.
Brian was featured in American Art Collector magazine’s April 2022 issue.
Inquire about available books and DVDs.
Artwork shown above is from Brian Keeler’s 2023 Exhibit.
Artwork shown above is from Brian Keeler’s 2022 Exhibit.
Artwork shown above is from Brian Keeler’s 2021 Showcasing.
Artwork shown above is from Brian Keeler’s 2020 Showcasing.
Brian Keeler has established himself as one of the preeminent realist painters working in the Northeast today. His distinctive use of color, fine draftsmanship, attention to proportional harmony and compositional relationships have made his work easily recognizable. His love of painting landscapes on location in the direct manner of the impressionists and others provides a certain immediacy and authenticity to his paintings. He then combines the plein air work with more ambitious studio paintings. The paintings of Brian Keeler have received a host of awards and acclaim during a career that spans over 30 years. His subjects and sources of inspiration are of the landscapes of Pennsylvania and the Finger Lakes Region of New York State, portraiture, the figure, still life and works from Italy where he teaches painting workshops in Umbria and Tuscany. His paintings have been collected by many individuals, corporations, and museums and feature articles have appeared in American Artist Magazine and in Pastelogram, a journal for pastel artists. Two books have been illustrated by Keeler in collaboration with their authors, one a children’s book and the other a treatise on a mystical theme.
“The portrayal of light as seen directly on the topography of the Finger Lakes area is the unifying theme of this group of paintings. Many of them are plein aire works, which means that they were composed and painted on location with completions made in the studio. The paintings of Corot, or more precisely his approach rather than style have often served as an inspiration, as he was the “proto-impressionist” meaning that he was one of the first to take an easel outside to paint. As I often do the out-of-doors painting late in the day because of my attraction to the heightened drama of raking light, a number of these works show the sun glinting on the lakes or glowing through trees etc. Others in the show are entirely painted in the studio but certainly based on impressions and studies from the motif. The play of light as it describes the form and character of the land or figure and brings out various qualities has long been of interest to me and this show continues with that exploration. There are several nocturnes presented here, which show the softer, cooler and perhaps more poetic light of night along with the accents of house lights.”