Getting to the Prix de West International Art Exhibition last June wasn’t easy for Ron Kingswood. His home near Sparta, Ontario, is almost 1,150 miles from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma—and travel between Canada and the United States had become more challenging since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

But it was worth the trip for Kingswood and his wife Linda. His painting, A Morning Walk, earned the Major General and Mrs. Don D. Pittman Wildlife Award for exceptional artistic merit for a wildlife painting or sculpture at the show. “I was taken back by this acknowledgement from my peers,” he says. “It was a big surprise, and a huge honor.”

As happy as he is about receiving the award and being recognized at Prix de West, Kingswood is most peaceful when he’s at home. The house that he and Linda share sits on five quiet acres atop the cliffs overlooking Lake Erie. It’s about 20 miles from St. Thomas, the small town where he grew up. “We’re pretty isolated up here, and I like that,” he says. “I don’t really wander too far away from my studio in general.”

Read the full article in the November/December 2022 issue.

Descending

Oil
54″ by 59″

“Rarely does a landscape request one’s attention as this one did while I was walking early one morning. The sound of geese in the distance provided the concluding ingredient for the information of this image.”

The Churchyard

Oil
60″ by 78″

“Since we moved to the countryside, I have driven past this little cemetery, witnessing seasonal changes from the green of summer to the whiteness of winter. Over the years, I have visualized and conjured up many arrangements for paintings using birds in this environment. The snowy owl is one such depiction.”