By Jake Grubb
Auster at his easel.
If you presented him with a creative idea, Ken Auster would pause in silence with a quizzical look on his face. Seemingly detached in a daydream, soon he would emerge from “painter’s planet” into the present moment with a critique so articulate it was as though he had been assessing your concept as you yourself were hatching it. And then he would go further. With laser-focused attention to the idea put forth, Ken would offer a fresh approach that would rebirth the presented notion in a version of form, color spectrum, content essence and purpose that you couldn’t and wouldn’t have thought of on your own. It might be a painting, a sculpture or an example of architecture. Most anything. But always, it was the Auster magic that inspired a matchless outcome. There was nothing else quite like it.
From this wellspring of invention came Ken Auster’s rare and special genius as a painter. Transfixed by graphics and fine art painting from a young age, Ken began developing art works in varied mediums as a young surfer, creating renditions that expressed his deep passion for all things coast and ocean; azure waves, pristine beaches, flowing palm trees, coastal scenes of endless variety, surfer guys, surfer girls, surfer kids and surfers at their zeniths on the waves of California and Hawaii.
One of Ken Auster’s works.
All the while, Ken was absorbing and logging his overall life experiences and observations, later to be expressed on canvas after canvas. Beginning as a Long Beach university student in 1968 under the mentorship of master painter Dick Odin, Ken began conceptualizing a painting style and subject range that he would ultimately apply years later through his specialization in the “Plein Air” painting technique. Brilliantly mastering this 19th century French alchemy of impressionistic color, brush strokes and subject, Ken explored and painted wide-ranging subjects on several continents for over two decades, in the process becoming a true master himself and much sought after as a documentary painter and teacher.
Ken was an enraptured resident of Laguna Beach, beginning in the late 1960s, and was a respected annual exhibitor at both the Laguna Beach Art Festival and Sawdust Festival until 2015, his final year. On any given day you could find him painting in his eclectic studio on Laguna Canyon Road, teaching a Plein Air workshop at a majestic Laguna Beach location, in the ocean off of Picnic Beach on his standup paddleboard or evenings with his beloved wife Paulette, musing upon the beauties of Laguna Beach from their hilltop home.
To all who knew him – fellow artists, clients, students, local merchants, city fathers and friends – Ken Auster was a beacon of ebullience with a mischievous sense of humor, whose artistic passions and fervent opinions provided life fuel for anyone of any station who was exposed to his warm yet irreverent smile. Ken was an indefatigable motivator for all who crossed his creative path, whatever their pursuits. Although Ken Auster’s loss leaves an unfillable void in Laguna Beach and beyond, his paintings and teachings remain forever alive.
Jake Grubb is a friend of the late artist Ken Auster.
