Keith Breeden RP

I was born in 1956. Raised in Cheshire. I now live with my wife & children in Mid Wales.

I have always drawn & painted. I have no formal art education: what I know, I know through working & studying the work of others.

Every person I work with is of note to me: It is important to me that I work with the same care and effort regardless of the “notability” of the sitter to others.

Image: Keith Breeden RP, Self-Portrait

RP Member Keith Breeden first started his portrait painting career in 1994, entering a portrait of his friend in the annual open exhibition at MOMA Cymru & won first prize. Later, he went on to win a BP Portrait Award for visitors favourite painting six months later.

"I spent 6 months painting and repainting “Jack a Morley Richards, Ty Nant”, a portrait of Jack and his brother Morley, in our landscape. Encouraged by friends and family, I entered it for the BP Portrait Awards (NPG, London). Visitors to the exhibition voted it their favourite painting. I received letters from people who had seen and been moved by my painting. This was great encouragement and a kind of validation. Then, Maj. Geoffrey Crook, for the Royal Pioneer Corps Association, asked me if I would paint a portrait of Maj. Gen. Field, then Governor of the Tower of London: my first major commission! Since then portrait commissions have built slowly and I have worked steadily, learning always, establishing myself as a portrait painter."