Artist Kenneth Laird graduated from Munford High School in rural West Tennessee near Memphis in 1988. “While growing up, I spent many hours drawing and painting. I was gifted my first rifle and shotgun at age twelve and was in the woods hunting squirrels, coons and rabbits and later showed up at yearly dove hunts. When I was a Senior in High School I raised and trained beagles and hunted rabbit with my favorite Uncle J.C. Montgomery. Duck, Deer and Turkey hunting always fascinated me and in 2022 at the age of fifty-two, I went on a journey to reinvent myself and create my own wildlife art style and brand.” Laird received a scholarship to the Memphis College of Art in 1989 after High School. While here, he was named Illustrator of the Year by the faculty and received three scholarships while in attendance. Later in 2002 he received his Master of Arts degree from Syracuse University in Illustration and graduated top of the class. While at Syracuse, he was blessed to study under many great outdoor artists such as Jack Unruh, Bart Forbes and Murray Tinkelman, just to name a few. Many of these artists had done work for Field and Stream and Boy’s Life Magazine. During this time, he studied art and design in New York, San Francisco and Fort Worth, TX at TCU.

“With the support of many popular social media reference photographers I began developing my current signature style of combining abstract acrylic painting with mixed media and digital painted content to create the stunning waterfowl and gun dog images featured.” – Laird’s work is the combination of a year long journey to discover his true passion of painting the most popular hunted species. “Bringing class to the art of wildlife and conservation.”

A special thanks to Justin Trent @fl_Fowlmouthoutdoors – John Brown @fl_Brownbanded – Danny Klauss @ dannyklauss – Brian Ellithorpe @ brianellithorpe and @brianellithorpemedia – Cameron Berrien @cameron.berrien for the great reference photos that make this art shine.