Kenneth M. Sibley

Kenneth Sibley was born in London and spent most of his life in Sussex. He had a great love for the North east of Scotland and in his later years spent many months painting the coastal scenes along the Moray Coast until his death in 1983. He trained as a commercial artist and during world War II he found an appropriate niche within the Royal Navy when he was detailed to produce technical drawings for instruction posters and manuals. For a period he was based at the Royal Naval Air Station at Crail, Fife, where he drew details of everything from 'Swordfish' torpedo dropping mechanisms to Grenade Rifle No 68 A.T Mk. II diagrams. His sketchbooks, displayed in the show-case, have the occasional drawing of ships and seamen indicating a love of the sea which is evident in all of his later watercolours.

After the war Sibley worked for the Central Electricity Generating Board, eventually becoming its publicity manager before his retiral. Friends of Kenneth Sibley say that he was a man of great warmth and generosity of spirit. His love of the sea is reflected in his art and his attention to the detail of the ships he painted is in keeping with the great tradition of ship portraiture.