There is little to suggest from the outside that Kim Kennedy's house is anything other than a quaint suburban home. But step inside and the first thing you'll notice is the smell. Paint fumes pervade every corner of the house. In the front room, floor to ceiling canvasses are crammed together between complicated sculptures and a paint-encrusted chair and table. Kennedy's studio is a work in progress. "It has become too small in here so I am building an extension along the side of the house but I think that will be too small eventually also," Kennedy says. Busily preparing his paintings for shipment to the Sydney Home Show, Kennedy is excited at the prospect of selling his work and having studio space to fill with his next series of paintings. "I like doing home shows and at a good show I can get 30-40 commissions. That type of work keeps you honest," he says. "What people are asking me to do I wouldn't normally do, but it brings you back to reality. You really need that variety in your life. I get a lot of good contacts from commission work, too." In Kennedy's lounge, two abstract paintings, framed in distressed timber, dominate the wall space while a more traditional lanscape leans against the wall. His large-format works are on exhibition at Gainsville Furniture in Southbank and at the soon-to-be opened Cavali in St Kilda.
"I feel very comfortable doing big works, and with the Cavali dealership they have the big open spaces for me to display my work.They can give me a big exhibition space." Kennedy admits he often has little idea what the subject matter for his next painting will be. When faced with a blank canvas he begins to develop ideas and usually completes the work within two days. "I might just have a blank canvas, so the result is spontaneous," Kennedy says. "An average painting usually takes me two days to complete, from stretching the canvas to the finished product." "It is like a good book, once you pick it up you can't put it down until you finish it." "If I start to think too much about what to paint then it usually doesn't work. Nine out of 10 times I get what I want. When it hasn't been what I want, I have got fantastic effects by experimenting; from scraping off the paint or using my hands." Last month Kennedy painted in front of the Sheraton Towers for a charity event. He admits, even with his back to the audience, he was paralysed by stage fright. "I went down there to paint and my hand was shaking. I thought 'What is the big deal I have been doing this for 16 years'," he says. "Sometimes I have to pinch myself, but if you don't make the effort you don't get the results."
