About

R. Kirk Moore was born in 1951 in New Jersey. He attended Catholic grammar school, and high school (St. Joseph’s in Metuchen, NJ) and graduated from the College at Georgetown University in 1973 with a B.A. in theology. During his senior year at Georgetown, Mr. Moore studied drawing with Frank Wright at George Washington University, and art history at American University. “I received a wonderful education at the Catholic schools I attended. All the good things, the important things, were there to learn: love, devotion, dedication, discipline, religion and yes, reading, writing, and arithmetic. As I look back on it the one weak point of my Catholic education was the Fine Arts program. There wasn’t one. “In 1970 I hitchhiked across Europe with my friend Steve Pozycki. After six weeks in France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia and Belgium we ended up in Amsterdam. We went to a lot of museums along the way and looked at a lot of art. There was a large exhibition of Van Gogh paintings in Amsterdam. This was before the Van Gogh Museum. It blew me away. I think that’s when I began to think about painting. It took a few years for it to sink in. “By the 1970s Georgetown started their Fine Arts Program. It was pretty basic. I took a wood carving class with Leonard Cave. At the time there was a consortium between the various colleges and universities in Washington (D.C.). I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Frank Wright’s drawing class at George Washington University. The waiting list to get into Frank’s class three years. I think he sensed my eagerness and took pity on my naiveté’. In any event, he squeezed me in. Except for three months a the Leo Marchutz School in Aix-en-Provence, that drawing class was the extent of my formal art education. For the rest I looked and experimented. I looked at thousands of paintings in hundreds of museums and galleries. I learned the hard way, but it was a good way for me. However, every once in while a friend would say ‘Why don’t you try this.’ It would help and I’d think, ‘Why didn’t someone tell me this ten years ago?’ Still, I believe the best way to learn to paint is just to paint. Get started and you’ll figure it out. Writers write. Painters paint. You have to be willing to make mistakes and try it over again.” Mr. Moore’s works full time as a painter. His studio is in Belfast, Maine where his lives with his wife and two younger children. He works primarily in oils, acrylics and mixed media. On Living and Working in Maine: “When I graduated from Georgetown in 1973 I went to France and began painting. Four of the friends I lived with moved to Mount Desert Island (three of them still live in Maine). When I got back from France I went to visit them. I continued to do this for twenty-six years. I fell in love with Maine. I lived and painted in Manhattan for seven years, which I also love, and the New Jersey Shore, (at heart I’m a Jersey guy), D.C., Philadelphia and few other places but basically I’m a landscape painter and I paint what is around me. How can you beat Maine? It has everything, mountains, forests, rivers, meadows, wildlife, the sea, harbors, boats, beautiful towns, colorful people, great light. Everywhere you look there’s a painting. “As it happens with many naturally beautiful places the beauty comes at a price. Winters can be hard in Maine. Work isn’t always readily available. Much of what can be had is backbreaking. People need stamina, patience and determination to make it. Of course, these are the same attributes you need as an artist so my respect for the people in Maine is very high. “Maine has also been the locus of some of the more important events in my life. My eldest child took her first steps in Maine. I met my wife at sunset on the top of Cadillac Mountain on Mt. Desert Island. My youngest son was conceived here. Perhaps the most important reason I love working in Maine is the heightened spiritual awareness I experience when I’m here. The images are sharper. Everything is more defined. Perhaps, it’s just the clean air. But, I think it’s something else. Call it beauty. Call it nature. Whatever you wish, but it’s something tangible, and I want to paint it.” On Marine Painting: “Boats are floating sculpture. If you can’t find beauty in boats and water you’re already dead.”