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.
"In 1972 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.
His works are shown at Synchronicity Fine Arts in New York City, Carver Hill Gallery in Rockport Maine and Beauregard Fine Arts in Rumson New Jersey His paintings are in collections throughout the United States, also in England, Ireland, Bermuda, France, Australia, and Switzerland.
When Mr. Moore first camd to Maine he served as the Director of Development, Chief Operating Officer and Fine Arts Coordinator for the National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped under the direction of Brother Rick Curry, S.J.
Mr. Moore is currently on the Board of Directors of the Penobscot.
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."
Exhibitions:
Group
Shows:
MBBC - Monmouth Beach, New Jersey
1988
MBBC - Monmouth Beach, New Jersey
1989
Synchronicity Space - New York, New
York 1990
Art Initiatives Salon Show New York,
New York 1995
Artworks - Trenton, New Jersey 1997
Artworks - Trenton, New Jersy 1998
NTWH Gallery, Belfast, Maine 2000
NTWH Gallery, Belfast, Maine 2000
NTWH Gallery, Belfast, Maine 2001
NTWH Gallery, Belfast, Maine 2001
NTWH Gallery, Belfast, Maine 2002
NTWH Gallery, Belfast, Maine 2002
Camden Falls Gallery - Camden, Maine
2002
Camden Falls Gallery - Camden, Maine 2005
William Ryan Gallery -Belfast, Maine 2005
Flinn Gallery - Greenwich Pulblic library - Greenwich CT 2005
Camden Falls Gallery - Camden, Maine 2006
William Ryan Gallery - Belfast, Maine 2006
Two
Man Shows:
Synchronicity Space - New York, New
York, 1991
The Walt Whitman Center for the Arts
and Humanities - Camden New Jersey
1991
NTWH - Kieran Duffy Studio - New York,
New York, 1998
One
Man Shows:
Front Street Gallery, Housatonic,
Massachussetts, 1992
NTWH - New York, New York, 1998
Synchronicity Space - New York, New
York, 1995
Synchronicity Space - New York, New
York, 1997
Synchronicity Fine Arts - New York,
New York 2001
Synchronicity Fine Arts - New York, New York 2003
Beauregard Fine Arts - Rumson, New Jersey 2004
Syncbronicity Fine Arts - New York, New York 2005
Ambient Gallery - Grosse Pointe, Michigan 2006
Carver Hill Gallery - Rockport, Maine 2007
Museum
Shows:
Penobscot
Marine Museum, Searsport, Maine 2002