About the Artist: Kevin Kutz was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1955. He began oil painting at the age of eight, under the guidance of Jean Slenker. He attended Carnegie Mellon University, studied with Robert Brackman - who had been a student of Robert Henri and George Bellows of the Ashcan School - and developed and maintained a personal and artistic relationship with Raphael Soyer until Soyer's death in 1987. Kevin was the 2009 Eben Demarest Trust Fund's Grantee, which allowed him to explore and paint many of the sites Thomas Cole and other Hudson River School painters had done nearly 150 years before. He has exhibited extensively and his art can be found in many public and private collections throughout the U.S.Kevin has been a plein air artist for the last forty years, working an average of three sites per day, and approximately three hours at each site. Atmospheric conditions help dictate when and where he will set up his easel. After executing several thousand paintings outdoors, a consequence of which was skin cancer, Kevin has become an advocate for 100 SPF sunscreen and broad-brimmed hats.Kevin had primarily been an ala prima painter, but now prefers to work simultaneously on several different paintings over a longer period of time.