July 29-August 11, Howell Gallery, howellgallery.com, 840.4437
Kenny McKenna was happy to make a career out of his creative drive, spending two decades playing in a rhythm and blues band. But the longer he spent on tour, the more he came to realize that he was in the wrong line of art, as the sketches and paintings that kept him occupied during travel became his primary focus. He has since flourished as a full-time painter thanks to his extraordinary skill at capturing the feeling of natural settings – vast plains, towering cliffs, sun-dappled country houses – in oil. A frequent exhibitor in Texas, Wyoming and New Mexico as well as Oklahoma, he was recently invited to participate in next year’s prestigious Masters of the American West show at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles… but first his luminous landscapes will fill the spacious gallery in Nichols Hills.
