Angela Atkinson Ken White: Muralist and Painter

Annotation

Ken White's career spans an impressive six decades. He is perhaps best known for his murals, sited in a wide variety of locations. To date, he has painted over one hundred murals. For over twenty years Ken was the personal artist to Virgin boss Richard Branson and has completed works for him in Virgin establishments throughout the world, including recording studios, record shops, hotels and airport lounges. With the launch of Virgin Atlantic in 1984, Ken produced what is probably his most well know work: the 'Scarlet Lady' emblem, which features on all the airline's aircraft. Ken's early career as a graphic designer in the swinging sixties saw his work grace a variety of music and arts magazines, including the legendary underground magazine Oz. Through the 1970s and 1980s, Ken designed a vast amount of concert posters and, most notably, the cover of XTC's Black Sea album. Although mural work has provided a living, Ken has always been, first and foremost, a painter and is now gaining recognition for his works on canvas. Latterly, his work is concerned with depicting industrial landscapes and the lives of working men, strongly influenced by life in the railway workshops where he worked in his youth.