About Gary Akers

Akers is one of America’s foremost contemporary realist, painting in watercolor, dry brush and egg tempera. Akers is considered to be a master of light and shadow in his exciting compositions. His works are praised both for their beauty and for their richness of detail, and that level of detail is all the more remarkable considering the medium he works in.

Gary Akers, internationally recognized artist, is one of America’s foremost contemporary realists, recognized for his expertise in watercolor, drybrush and egg tempera. Born in 1951 in Pikeville, Kentucky, he completed a Master’s degree at Morehead State University in 1974 and spent the next year on the exclusive Greenshield Foundation Grant furthering his egg tempera studies. His work has been exhibited widely in numerous institutions including the Speed Art Museum, the Frye Museum of Art, the Ogunquit Art Museum, the Asheville Art Museum, the National Academy of Desigh, the Artists of America exhibition at the Colorado History Museum, and the Great American Artist exhibition at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Akers is a highly accomplished watercolorist, and has received major awards from the American Watercolor Society (where he is an elected Signature Member), the Southern Watercolor Society and the Kentucky Watercolor Society. Recently, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City Missouri, purchased his drybrush watercolor, “Mrs. Lean Arthur” for their permanent collection. Akers work is in the collection of The White House, Ross Collection, Brown Forman Corporation, and the Ogunquit Art Museum. Over the past two decades, Akers has been featured in various books and periodicals including American Artist, Watercolor, Artist’s Magazine, U.S. Art, American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur and Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art: The First Ten Years. Two books about Akers have been published, each with images of over one hundred of his paintings: Kentucky Land of Beauty (1999) and Memories of Maine (2003). For more information visit http://www.GaryAkers.com