Kenneth Norman Lilly was born in Bromley in 1929, the only child of Cecil and Reibie (née Mayes).
Cecil, originally from Berkshire, was a clerk of works in the construction industry. He initially trained as a joiner and cabinet maker – he made Ken’s original drawing board studio cabinets, all of which are still in use today. He was also a talented amateur artist who had been offered the opportunity of going to art school himself but family circumstances made it impossible. Family narratives suggest there were other earlier artists in the family, too, all gifted amateurs apart from an itinerant Victorian copyist. This uncle travelled the countryside by caravan and his ‘old masters’ adorned the walls of many a large house – or so it is told.
Reibie’s family were agricultural workers in Suffolk. Ken, although brought up in Kent, spent much of his childhood in Suffolk where his grandfather was a farm bailiff. There, his love of the countryside and fascination with nature were fostered – and particularly his love of horses.
Technique and Style
Initially, his predominant technique for illustration was detailed fine watercolour but over time he employed line and wash just as often. His subjects were wide-ranging and where possible depicted some aspect of an animal’s behaviour and character. This was well described in the catalogue notes for an exhibition of his work at the Medici Galleries in 1983:
“Ken Lilly is more than even the best camera-eye. His subjects live. His animals have personalities… His wide range of painting skills can convey power in the swoop of the tern, cheek in the stance of of the tiny chick, peace in the hovering grace of the snowy owl; but best of all, a sense of fun, in so many of his works…”
A review of the same exhibition in The Field, 26 February 1983 describes his style: “…is one of meticulous detail. Texture is his forte, from the insubstantial softness of down and the silky, water-resistant toughness of outer plumage to the beady shine of an eye.
Each leaf in the surrounding foliage is given portrait treatment. The tiny tear, the black spots or fungi that mar its perfection are all recorded. He depicts in photographic clarity the grain beginning to split sunbaked wooden gates; or snow as on melting it adopts the loose texture of sago.”
Although most of his commissioned works were in watercolour, his favourite medium was oils, ideally on a large scale. Sadly, he had little time or studio space in which to indulge this passion as most had to be painted outside. The few oils that we still have are truly treasured possessions – as is his paint-filled palette!
From life and camera – to pencil and paint
In his own words for the British Philatelic Bulletin Vol. 23 No. 9 May 1986:
“Naturally enough, I spend much of my time with live animals. This inevitably poses the question, how much time can I spend watching them and how much time painting them? Field work is of course necessary, watching a delight and something in which I can indulge myself at great length when given half a chance. I’m not a great sketcher. I’ve found animals to be rather reluctant models. So, apart from a few quick sketches to record movement, I prefer to take photographs. l can record two or more dozen aspects of a subject in the same time that it takes me to do one drawing. This photographic approach is particularly suitable for paintings that require fine detail such as the stamps. Indeed, there are times when even an enlarged photograph is inadequate. On these occasions I use study skins. These give me the finer details of claw, beak, shape of feather and fur texture. However, they are unreliable for anything other than these details for no animal in its right mind would care to look anything like a study skin. With these references to hand, I set about the working pencil drawing. I may draw this several times before I’m satisfied enough to trace it down on to board or paper. Then, with watercolour, ‘I fill it in and hope for the best’.’’
Field work could be literally in the fields around him but inevitably he studied animals in captivity too. He once cited a time of becoming worryingly aware of being very alone while studying tigers at a safari park, and although on the outside of the enclosure, found himself praying that the keepers had secured the gates. The study skins he refers to, were mostly birds and borrowed from local, national and international collections. Larger ones were stored out of reach on top of a high book case with nothing but their feet projecting out – a delightfully creepy row of talons for the grandchildren to spot!
Red Stag Calling (Early morning)
Oil on hessian mounted on hardboard
1972
90 x 120cm
This information is from the back of the photo. The colour has definitely degraded and maybe the angle at which the photo was taken might explain the distortion of its dimensions.
Ken’s private commissions ranged from a pencil sketch for friends to a striking set of desert animal paintings destined for Oman. Company retirement gifts and paintings to fill transom panels in a Georgian home were among his other works headed for private collections. Illustration work almost always came with a deadline, whereas most private commissions did not…
October 1995 saw his most public work ever, his second set of stamps for the Royal Mail, the Christmas Robins. He then decided that 1996 would be a year to focus on the projects he actively enjoyed: completing the book on racehorses, the on-going series of greetings cards that gave license to his humour – and those overdue private commissions. He was clearly unwell by February but his cancer diagnosis in April was a shock. He continued working, however, as much as he could, until a couple of days before he died in early May.
On his drawing board was the near completed line and wash artwork for The Medici Society’s Ken Lilly Series of wraparound cards. On the studio wall were pencil roughs for the paintings destined to be enjoyed purely as paintings.
In the 1980s, Walker Books, a recently formed children’s publisher, began commissioning his work and published most of the books Ken illustrated from then on. Scholastic and Dorling Kindersley however, also offered projects that he was pleased to accept, and his last ever series of books, published in 1996, was for a small publisher, Andersen Press.
His ever-accumulating sources of work included the Curwen Press, most notably a set of twelve paintings for the 1982 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds calendar. The first of his two sets of stamps for the Royal Mail was released in 1986. Nature Conservation – Species at Risk, featuring four endangered British species was a significant commission for him and The Garden Studio.
In 1975, ten years after Ken turned freelance, he and Kath took another major decision. When they were first married, they had moved further into Kent where it was rural enough for Kath to run a very small-scale poultry business for a while. The increasing urbanisation of the county, however, turned idle thoughts of heading westward into a decisive move to the beautiful Axe Valley in East Devon.
After a slow start, by the early 1970s Ken’s decision was proving a sound one. He was providing artwork for two magazine publishers Fleetway (Look & Learn), IPC (Birds of the World) and book publishers Hamlyn, Mitchell Beazley and Macmillan. His work for Birds of the World led to a curious collaboration with an ornithologist based in Arizona on the birds of the Samoan Islands. It yielded a few paintings but the book project was never completed.
The advertising world still offered occasional work, too. Most notably a commission to provide a set of hummingbirds in pen and ink for a corporate identity project by the recently formed brand consultancy, Wolff Olins. This new identity for a major house builder adorned everything from their site hoardings and hard hats to presentation neckties for many years.
The Medici Society began regularly commissioning his paintings for reproduction, mostly greetings cards but also prints and posters – as well as publishing three books both written and illustrated by him. Around the same time he began "a long and pleasant association" with an illustration agency, The Garden Studio, despite declining to be listed or formally represented by them – he preferred to remain independent. Their first collaboration was a delightful Card to Keep of British birds for Concertina Publications Ltd.
At this time, too, his work was being exhibited at the Moorland and Tryon Galleries in London, the Goldolphin Gallery in Cirencester and local galleries in Kent.
Ken’s home studio, one end of the family living room, became his full-time studio. This meant it was out of bounds to the children for all but the most sedentary of activities! He worked with family life going on around him, quite literally, for over a decade. The family by then included a menagerie of the children's pets, along with two dogs and a rescued tawny owl, Mrs. Wood.
In Farway, Ken finally had a dedicated studio, where some of the older grandchildren do remember watching him paint – and drawing in there themselves, sitting behind Grandpa while he worked. There, too, he was able to fulfil another ambition: a horse of his own. Valentina, a brood mare known as Tina. Eventually her foal, Kitty, joined the family alongside the feral cats that had replaced the dogs, and by then, the children!
He attended Sidcup School of Art on a scholarship where he studied animal painting and anatomy. On leaving, he went into advertising, working for Clifford Bloxham & Partners and G S Royds, as an ‘ideas man’. Throughout those 15 years he continued to paint in his spare time, building a sufficient reputation for his wildlife illustration to make the decision to turn freelance in 1965. A risky decision, nonetheless, with his wife, Kath, and three young children, to support – all on the uncertain hope of realising his ambition of becoming a full-time artist.
Baby Animal Board Books (home)
Methuen/Walker Books 1982
Baby Animal Board Books (skill)
Revised edition 1985
First published 1984
Walker Books Ltd
Some Birds and Mammals of the...
Woodland
©The Medici Society Ltd (1978)
Field and Hedgerow
©The Medici Society Ltd (1980)
Riverbank
©The Medici Society Ltd (1983)
Daytime Animals
As Large as Life
Text by Joanna Cole
First published in UK, 1985
Walker Books Ltd.
Night Time Animals
As Large as Life
Text by Joanna Cole
First published in UK, 1985
Walker Books Ltd.
Digger: The Story of a Mole
Story by Tessa Potter
First published in UK 1996
Andersen Press Ltd
Birds of Prey
by Glenys and Derek Lloyd
pub. Hamlyn 1969
Revised edition 1972
© The Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd 1969
Seabirds
by David Saunders
pub. Hamlyn 1971
© The Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd 1971
The Squirrel
by Margaret Lane
First published in UK, 1981
Methuen/Walker Books
The Fox by Margaret Lane
First published 1982
Methuen/Walker Books
A Field Full of Horses
by Peter Hansard
First published 1993
Walker Books Ltd
Kenneth Lilly's Animals
A Portfolio of Paintings
Text by Joanna Cole
First published, in UK 1990
Walker Books Ltd
Fang: The Story of a Fox
Story by Tessa Potter
First published in UK 1996
Andersen Press Ltd
Sarn: The Story of an Otter
Story by Tessa Potter
First published in UK 1996
Andersen Press Ltd
Greyfur: The Story of a Rabbit
Story by Tessa Potter
First published in UK 1996
Andersen Press Ltd
Books
Black Beauty
by Anna Sewell
Walker Books Ltd 1993
For Sainsburys
The Animal Atlas
Text by Barbara Taylor
First published 1992
Revised edition 2020
Dorling Kindersley Ltd.
Ken Lilly's Animal Ark
(8 titles)
Text by Angela Wilkes
First published 1992
Dorling Kindersley Ltd.
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
1975 Insights into Nature , Moorland Gallery, London
1983 Kenneth Lilly, The Medici Galleries, London
1988 Kenneth Lilly, The Medici Galleries, London
Kenneth Lilly, Park Avenue Atrium, NYC, USA
Group Exhibitions
1972 Tryon Gallery, London and Nairobi
1982 The Brotherton Gallery, London
1984 ’SMAGIC, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1987/8 Lasting Impressions, Hurlbutt Gallery, Greenwich Library
1989 D’Apres Nature, Galerie D’Art Municipal, Luxembourg
1993 Wildlife Exhibition (in support of The Born Free Foundation) The Medici Galleries, London
1995 Old Blacksmiths Gallery, Dulverton
His work was exhibited regularly in galleries throughout the West Country and before 1975 at The Old Bakehouse Gallery, Sevenoaks.