Kenneth Richard Turner

Kenneth Richard Turner is a commission artist who works closely with each client, welcoming their input from the first sketch through to the finished painting. Many of his works are large in scale and richly complex in composition.

During the 1970s and 1980s, galleries purchased his entire output of western art. The Ishtar Gate Gallery, in Houston's Galleria, represented him for forty years, selling his paintings to a global clientele.

In 1992, he served as president of the Live Oak Art Center, which hosted exhibitions drawn from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. As exhibit chair the following year, he curated several museum-quality exhibitions: retablos by Kurt Stevens paired with Spanish portraits from the Meadows Museum in Dallas, and two exhibitions of African and pre-Columbian art from the collection of Florence and Ali Abssi. David and Eula Winterman also gave him free rein to select Ashcan School paintings from their collection for the art center.

From 2004 to 2008, he co-owned the Turner Chapman Gallery in Columbus, Texas, with Mark A. Chapman. After watching him paint commission after commission for other people, Chapman told him one day, “I will pay you to paint what you want to paint.” The result was five original paintings depicting the Atonement of Jesus Christ, informed by Daniel Rona's insights into how the scene may actually have looked. After Chapman passed away, his widow told Ken to hold on to the paintings — they would go to charity upon her death.

His civic contributions have been formally recognized more than once. On June 1, 1994, the Mayor and City Council of the City of Houston passed a resolution in his honor:

The Mayor and City Council of the City of Houston do hereby celebrate the talents of Kenneth Richard Turner, and extend congratulations to him on this auspicious occasion.

He was nominated Citizen of the Year in Columbus, Texas, in 1992, and named Citizen of the Year for the New Ulm community in 2013 in recognition of his outstanding and dedicated service.

In his own words:

Most significant in my life has been my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His tender mercies, and the support of my dear wife, Nell, and our children.

Kenneth and his wife, Nell, have been active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since December 11, 1977.