Portrait of an artist: Keith Kline

If you’ve looked at a Cook product catalog, you already know the work of Keith Kline. He is the manager of illustration and photography at Cook Medical and has worked for Cook for 36 years. His days are normally spent creating technical drawings and illustrations of Cook medical devices, but outside of his work, he is a talented fine arts painter, specializing in portraits but also landscapes and figure studies.

It turns out it is handy to have a portrait artist on staff. Over the years, some of the physician­–inventors we have worked with in pioneering minimally invasive medicine have passed on. Wanting to honor their memories and celebrate their innovations, we have asked Keith to paint their portraits. Sometimes copies of these portraits are given to the families of the physician, and the originals grace the walls of our headquarters.

Keith has created at least twelve portraits of Cook luminaries, including Bill Cook himself, Bill with his wife Gayle Cook, Dr. Charles Dotter, Dr. Stan Cope, and Dr. Josef Rösch.

The covers of The Bill Cook Story, Vols. 1 & 2, both feature portraits of Bill painted by Keith. One of these (shown below) was modeled after a well-known portrait of John F. Kennedy by American artist Jamie Wyeth. This was a commissioned work for Bill, outside of Keith’s day job. When Bill saw the finished portrait, he told Keith he was not charging enough for his work. Keith recalls that Bill joked as he handed Keith a check to pay for the painting, saying, “You might want to wait to cash this.”

An artist at the age of 9

“My mom saw that I was into drawing when I was a child. My great aunt worked in a hospital and brought home sheets of the bright yellow paper that, in those days, came in the Kodak x-ray film boxes. I used that bright yellow paper for drawing,” Keith said, when recounting how he began his life as an artist.

“When I was nine, my mom enrolled me in a painting class,” Keith recalled. “The other students were all senior citizens who wanted to paint landscapes. My teacher, Edna Jennings, was very good for me because she let me go my own way and follow my own interests, which was painting portraits.  And she showed me tips and tricks, like how to create textures. The most dramatic thing that happened that year was that she helped me sell one of my paintings for $10. That made a real impact on me, that you could earn money through painting.”

Not just a hobby

Through word of mouth, Keith sold paintings throughout high school, which provided him with a pretty steady income for a teenager. His father’s coworkers would commission him to do portraits of their wives and children.

Keith went on to study commercial art at Ivy Tech in Columbus, Indiana, focusing on illustration. That’s also where he met his wife, who was studying in the same program. After college, he worked as a commercial illustrator for a few years. He joined Cook at age 24, but continued to paint almost every night when he went home. He entered his work in competitions, such as the Indiana State Fair art competitions and Hoosier Salon, and immediately began winning “Best of Show,” earning prize money and gaining the attention of the art world.

“I had the good fortune to meet Mike Byron, an Indianapolis art dealer and gallery owner who was also a mentor. He was well respected and really knew the business. I painted for about twenty years, while I was also working full-time at Cook, and Mike exhibited and sold my paintings in his gallery north of Broadripple in Indianapolis. I have also sold paintings to corporations like OshKosh B’gosh, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Arvin Industries.”

“When Mike passed away and his gallery closed, I decided to pursue my interest in music. I play mandolin and guitar, and my wife plays guitar as well. But I plan to go back to painting in earnest when I retire from Cook.”

Until retirement day comes, Keith occasionally makes an exception to his no-painting rule and serves as the portraitist for the Federal District Courthouse in Indianapolis. When a judge is appointed as a chief judge, the Bar Association of Indianapolis commissions Keith to paint their portrait. He invites the judge and their spouse down to his house, and he poses them in a spot in his dining room where the light is “just right.” Keith’s wife takes multiple photographs of the judge, and Keith uses these to complete the portrait in oil paint. Keith has painted the portraits of three judges since 2009. Their portraits hang in the Federal Courthouses in Indianapolis and Chicago.

Keith’s painting technique

Asked how he preps and plans for a painting, Keith said, “I paint from photos that I take myself whenever possible. I have to take several photos in order to get the right lighting, and to let the person’s personality come out. I take 50 to 60 photos in a short period of time, instead of having a subject sit for long periods of time. My subjects often bring their spouses or parents, which helps them relax. I enjoy painting portraits, figurative art, and landscapes.”

Below are paintings of one of Keith’s favorite spots not far from the Park 48 campus. He has painted it in all seasons.

We are glad to have Keith’s talent in house! Enjoy this gallery of his paintings — portraits, landscapes, figure studies, and still lifes.

Figure Studies by Keith Kline

Figure Studies by Keith Kline

Landscapes by Keith Kline

Landscapes by Keith Kline

Portraits by Keith Kline

Portraits by Keith Kline

Still Lifes by Keith Kline

Still Lifes by Keith Kline