Ken Kirkby was born in London England in 1940. He was raised in Portugal and immigrated to Canada in 1958. A Portuguese fisherman spoke to Kirkby of Canada’s Arctic and instilled in him a desire to see this land of polar bears, ice and snow.

After arriving in Vancouver in 1958, Kirkby lived for five years with the Inuit. He became immersed in the beauty of that rugged land. There he found the stone monuments known as Inukshuks, which inspired his masterpiece “Isumataq”. Considered the world’s largest portrait, this 12’x152’ painting he described at its unveiling in 1992 at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa as “the portrait of the soul of a nation”. The painting was exhibited in 1993 at the Ottawa Museum of Nature and ArtExpo in New York.

Ken Kirkby’s works are currently available in a number of galleries across the country. Information concerning his career is available through the libraries of the National Gallery, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the UBC Fine Arts Library, the Edmonton Art Gallery, the University of Manitoba Architecture and Fine Arts Library, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and others.

Ken Kirkby now lives and paints at his studio in Bowser, B.C. with the beauty of Canada’s West Coast as his muse.

His paintings are collected worldwide by corporations and individuals alike.