K B Hancock was a professional painter who sold his paintings worldwide direct to his clients, never exhibiting through galleries.
His father, recognising his talent, sent him to Paris to study art at an early age and it was there that he developed his love of French culture and the beautiful countryside.
He painted many regions of France during his life, specialising towards the end of his life in the colours and light of Provence and the Cote d’Azur. In 1949 KB moved to St Ives, home to a thriving community of artists.
“I was mixing with people like Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Leonard Fuller and Sven Berlin. I learnt much from them and used that knowledge to develop my own style,” he wrote later.
His greatest accolade was being made the first British painter since Henry Moore to be made a member of the prestigious Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and exhibited annually with them in Paris from 2002.
This colourful character was well known in Tetbury where he lived from 1993 to his death in 2014. He said of his work:
“I have never sold for investment. There are three things about buying a painting. You love it, you can afford it and the quality you will know for yourself. Judge the work not the man. Only time will tell if I am any good.’
This exhibition shows a wide range of his work from his studio from the 1970s to 2014, from tranquil countryside scenes, through impressionism, semi abstract and marine paintings.