'In Kevin Line's monochrome worlds, a sitter does not appear all at once; they gather slowly into being, until you find yourself standing with them.'
Kevin Line’s work is grounded in the quiet discipline of slow looking — the kind of deep, sustained attention through which a person gradually reveals themselves. Working entirely in monochrome, the artist removes anything that might soften or sentimentalise the image, distilling each portrait to its essential truths. He considers himself a realist: not in pursuit of flattery or embellishment, but of clarity, honesty, and human presence.
For Kevin, drawing and painting are forms of non-verbal thought. Through an accumulation of small acts of noticing and understanding, he constructs an image in which his hand almost disappears. What remains is the sitter — unvarnished, complex, profoundly human. Encountered in person, the physicality of the charcoal and pastel surface has a startling immediacy: deep blacks, delicate highlights, and a surface built from particles that together create the sense of a living presence. Viewers frequently describe an emotional jolt — as though meeting someone rather than observing an image.
In front of one of his portraits, the viewer enters the same journey the artist undertakes. Tiny marks resolve into form, form into character, character into a moment of recognition. It is a shared act of understanding between artist, viewer, and sitter. Kevin hopes that, in this moment, the viewer comes to know the subject in the same way he has come to know them: gradually, attentively, and with humility.
Kevin undertakes a limited number of private portrait commissions each year. Commission enquiries may be made through the John Davies Gallery.