Ben Kinder: Still Lifes and Views 

“Ben Kinder pulls us back to our everyday environment… He examines the streets and houses of Charlottetown, giving an accurate rendering of the feeling of what [it] has been and is…Kinder paints the dwellings of people still living [as opposed to rotted barns and deserted houses], and there’s a life force felt in his work.”

-Karl MacKeeman, from a review in Arts Atlantic, 1985

Ben Kinder: Still Lifes and Views is a tribute to the late artist’s search for beauty in the familiar. Kinder especially enjoyed the process of assembling and finding visual inspiration in still lifes from everyday objects, as well as the landscape of his chosen home, Prince Edward Island. His preferred medium was watercolour, with its balance of control and happy accident and its rich colour palette. He was a lover of the poetic, in words, in paint, and in one’s actions.

Born in 1949 in Hamilton, Ontario, Ben Kinder studied at the Dundas Valley School of Art, graduating in 1973. He soon acquired and custom fit his so-called “painting van,” a 1967 Chevy van with the roof chopped off and replaced with the top half of a VW station wagon, which he fit with windows, transforming it into a traveling studio. He moved to Prince Edward Island in 1975 and quickly fell in love with the place. In his words:  “As soon as the tires of my van hit the shore, I felt like I was at home. I had been other places, and very nice places as well, but I’ve never had such a strong sensation of being at home.” For the next two decades, Ben Kinder was a fixture of P.E.I.’s artist community, helping to found the Great George St. Gallery, Charlottetown’s first artist-run centre. There he hung the shows as the gallery’s preparator and held numerous solo exhibitions over the years. In 1991 he became preparator at Confederation Centre Art Gallery, retiring in 2020. In the late 1990s, he turned his energies to acting, and became a mainstay in P.E.I.’s theatre scene for decades.

For this exhibition, we asked local artists to provide their recollections of Ben Kinder, who for Charlottetown’s artistic community exemplified for many years what it was to dedicate oneself passionately to creative work.

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“A drawing by Ben Kinder graces the cover of J.J. Steinfeld’s first book, The Apostate’s Tattoo. The drawing was an intelligent and sensitive response to the stories contained within the collection, conveying, visually, the moment of an existential and gut-wrenching realization that something has gone terribly wrong. Such was the strength of Ben’s artistic abilities that he was able to express his vision through many mediums. Looking at his watercolour depiction of Victoria-by-the-Sea, I am struck by the energy and immediacy of the work, and its ability to capture the promise of springtime amid the melting snow and colourful, wooden houses in that seaside village. Ben also contributed immensely to the arts community through his volunteer work with the Great George St. Gallery. He provided leadership, encouragement and support to fellow artists along with a hands-on approach to the many things required in the running of the gallery. I will always be grateful for Ben’s kindness in the installation and opening of my first solo show there many years ago.”

–Brenda Whiteway  

“Ben Kinder was a long-time friend and valued colleague at Confederation Centre Art Gallery. He hung hundreds of art exhibitions and he never tired of looking at the art. He delighted in exhibition openings—welcoming people, meeting artists, and chatting over a glass of wine.”

–Kevin Rice 

“Ben was one of the first artists I met when I came here. With his funky converted van and his amazingly lyrical watercolour depictions of the landscape that he completed in situ, he introduced me to this wonderful place. It is a pleasure to have known him. He was up for any adventure, and willing to help and assist anyone. A kind and gentle person, who touched many hearts and will be sadly missed. He loved his many bikes, a glass of red wine, good laughs and friendship.”

–Nigel Roe

“I first became aware of the work of Ben Kinder when I was a member at the great George St. Gallery in the 1980s. I was a student just starting out, and Ben was a senior member of the gallery whose work I enjoyed. I met him for the first time when he was dropping off a painting for a group exhibition. He was happy to talk to me about the work and how he went about making it. As I got to know him a little better, he was always helpful and gave younger artists advice and encouragement. Reflecting now on Ben’s choice to turn his energy to the theatre in the late 1990s, I really admire his ability to fully immerse himself into something, and then, when the time comes, to know when to stop.

Ben was a painter of Prince Edward Island, of landscapes and cityscapes, and a painter of still lifes. I think of his paintings of the buildings and landscapes of the Island as portraits, and his still lifes as meditations, inspired by Japanese prints. Much of the landscape that he painted has changed. The old scenes are gone and replaced by modern buildings, but, in his work, the record remains. Artists hope that their work will live on after them, that they’ll be remembered through their work, and I think that they will, but there are times when people forget the artist, and that’s why exhibitions like this are important. They remind us that this person was an artist, that this person’s work will continue on. And it’s a pleasure to spend some more time with Ben’s paintings.”

–Stephen B. MacInnis