Leslie Kent

Upper Reaches, Poole Harbour, oil on canvas, 41 x 60cm, 1969

Although a life-long painter, Leslie Kent originally trained as an engineer, served in the army during the First World War and only became a full time, professional artist in 1945. His favourite subjects being wide landscapes, harbours, estuaries and boats, with a particular aptitude for sea and sky.

The paintings available here are all from the estate of Leslie and Margaret Kent. They are not representative of his complete painting career and the quality varies. Some are clearly sketches for larger and more finished paintings, others are variations (or exact copies) of other known works. Others are quick sketches which never went any further, capturing the moment perhaps, but not resulting in a worked-up, detailed painting.

Throughout his life Leslie kept a record of work produced (Appendix One) and also a record of paintings sold or given away (Appendix Two). After his death Leslie's son Barrie compiled a complete catalogue of this work based on these two records and included, where possible, photographs of the paintings. The quality of the photographs is not always very high (often snapshots by the current owners at Barrie's request) but they do mean that it is possible to know which painting is being referred to in the listings.

Barrie also compiled all of Leslie's notes on painting techniques gleaned from a number of artist friends or aquaintances (Notes on Painting).

All these documents are available as pdfs from the Publications page.