Keith Sears, Artist, RIP 12 November 2021.

Smith Center, Kansas 66967

The late Keith Sears internationally known artist, had a love of art since the age of 14. While a student at Gaylord High school, Gaylord, KS, he learned to draw and paint with the inspiration, help and guidance of a classmate, Carl Dean Nicholas. The two art buddies would frequently draw and paint the same picture and take them to school to compare them. Keith believes that if it had not been for Carl Dean, he would never have become an artist.

His development as an artist came while Keith was pastor of a church in Honolulu, Hawaii. He loved the beauty of the Islands and had a strong desire to capture it on canvas. After attending an adult class in oil painting, he started selling his work. Before leaving Hawaii he had painted and sold more than 400 pictures, showing in galleries, an open show and doing commissions.

After moving to the Island of Guam to pastor another church, Keith realized that there were no art shows there. So he began doing commissions, painting portraits, seascapes, florals, and landscapes. After four years, he and his wife Betty moved to California where he continued painting commissions for several years.

Keith's paintings have been shown in the Kahala Art Gallery and the Margaret Keene Gallery in Honolulu, Hawaii and in an open show with 49 other artists for 4 years in Waikiki. He has also shown his work in Torrance and in San Diego, California.

Not satisfied with his limited training, he worked on a degree in art at the Guam University, California State Universities in Dominguez Hills, CA, and in Long Beach, CA. Desiring to develop still further as an artist, Keith and Betty, retired from their work and moved to Florence, Italy, where he studied Renaissance art for 2 years in an Academy of Art, and did independent study of art for one year in Rome, Italy.