KEITH SALMON
Disability: Visually Impaired
Keith is a blind fine artist and avid mountain climber. He has climbed over a hundred Munros (a type of Scottish mountain), one of which can be seen in the first painting below. In 2009 he won the Jolomo award for Scottish landscape painting.
Keith Salmon was born in Essex and moved to Wales in the late 1960s. He studied for his BA in art at what is now Shrewsbury College of Arts & Technology and Falmouth School of Art between 1979 and 1983. He originally trained and worked as a sculptor, constructing pieces from steel, wood and cement fondu. On completion of his studies he moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the north east of England where he set up his first studio.
In 1989, Salmon moved back to Wales and set up a new studio. Around this time his sight deteriorated very quickly and within a few years he had to stop exhibiting work. He then decided to make the most of the time he still had sight and put his efforts into drawing and painting, finding new methods using just the very limited sight he now had left.
In 1998, he moved to Irvine, Ayrshire, in Scotland and, though registered blind, had enough confidence in the new paintings and drawings he created to once again start exhibiting them.
During this time his work has developed in two different styles: organised scribbles that form his drawings, and the bolder, broad marks in oil or acrylic paintings. Most of his works are based on his experiences while out walking in the Scottish Highlands. Over the last few years he has combined the scribbled pastel line with the painted acrylic marks, stating that he is “trying to capture a little of how I experience these wonderful wild places”.
At present Salmon keeps a studio space at Courtyard Studios in Irvine and is regularly exhibiting his work again.
