Artist with Jacksonville roots embraces traditional art in digital for

Kevin Stock knows central Illinois, having been born in Jacksonville and raised in Woodson before graduating from Jacksonville High School in 1987.

Now a civilian employee for the U.S. Department of Defense, the retired Navy veteran is diving head-first into learning about art.

“The art thing — I used to do little drawings,” Stock said, adding that it “wasn’t really art” so much as it was a way to pass the time by doodling the scenery around him. “Corn and farm stuff, tractors, combines.”

The pandemic changed that. Bored with “nothing to do here at the house all the time,” Stock decided to follow the lead of Matt Jagitsch, a friend who also graduated from JHS and had picked up art again when the pandemic freed up time from his non-art-related job.

“I thought, ‘Let me try this,’” Stock said. “But I didn’t have any art supplies.”

Instead, Stock used a virtual reality headset and an art app to create digital paintings.

“You’re standing there, you’ve got an easel, you’ve got a paintbrush,” Stock said of the app, noting the virtual reality makes it feel very much like actual painting with oils and a canvas.

Though Stock has always been artistic, it tended to take the form of poetry that has been published in poetry compilations, he said.

Painting — even digitally — was a different beast.

“The first stuff wasn’t really great,” Stock said. “I don’t know where it came from. I had never painted. Never did any of that.”

He did know he wasn’t interested in digital art as something that “you spit something into a search engine and it spits something out,” he said. “I wanted it to look like traditional painting.”

A lot of digital art features a smooth surface and leans into an anime style, including the digital art his teenagers have created, Stock said.

“I think that’s why I wanted to make it look more traditional than an anime style,” he said. “There’s no paint piling up, no brush strokes” visible in anime.

Stock’s art, as a result, features contemporary themes and a modern feel while also having the look of traditional oil paintings.

Topics range from portraits of people he’s met to landscapes he’s experienced during his world travels with the Navy. One series, featuring red balloons, has been an unexpected hit, he said.

Famous street artist Banksy inspired the first.

“There was something he did on a wall, of a girl holding a red balloon in the shape of a heart,” Stock said. “I thought it was cool.”

Stock then created his own painting, inspired by the Banksy painting. It struck a chord with people who were grieving, perhaps because balloons sometimes are used at funerals as a sign of remembrance or tribute, he said.

“In all of my art … the ones that speak to people, I never would have suspected at all,” he said. “You can’t (create a hit) on purpose.”

The app Stock uses allows him to choose what type of brush he uses — if he uses a brush at all; palette knives are among the options — and whether he uses canvas or some form of paper.

He treats his works like actual oils on canvas.

“I don’t erase anything,” he said. “I don’t hit the back button. I fix any mistakes I make with more paint.”

He also mixes his own paints within the app to get the precise colors he wants.

“I’m trying new things with my last two or three (paintings) where I use both (brushes and palette knives) to try to get different looks,” he said. “I’m trying to look as traditional as possible. It’s just me wanting to learn new ways of doing things, different looks.

‘How you start painting is probably not how you end up painting.” 

Stock is the first to say he’s still feeling his way toward an identifiable style of his own and learning as he goes but, in just a few short years, his art has attracted an audience.

Along with selling individual pieces via people seeing his works online and contacting him, some of his works — along with works by abstract artist Kent Broadbent — are on display through Aug. 30 at the NCI ARTworks gallery in Peru, northeast of Peoria.

NCIA is an arts agency in LaSalle, Bureau and Putnam counties that advocates for public art installations and helps find funding for large-scale murals and mosaics, among other efforts, according to Julia Messina, the agency’s executive director.

Stock’s friend Jagitsch, who exhibited at the NCIA gallery in 2022, also runs a website for emerging artists, Messina said, noting that website is how Stock found his way onto NCIA’s radar.

“Not only does he do digital art, but he does digital with oil,” Messina said. “… It’s a very new type of art to do.”

Despite his short history in the medium, Stock’s art is worth the attention, Messina said.

“We like to advocate for and promote some of the best artists in their genre,” she said. “We consider him to be one of the best artists in his genre, which is a new genre.”

The exhibit features prints of Stock’s works — some framed, some not; some on paper, some on canvas. One piece is printed on metal. All are printed with museum-quality inks and materials, Stock said.

Stock and Broadbent’s “styles are completely different but the colors they chose from their portfolios are very complementary,” Messina said. “People who like abstract art might not know anything about digital art.”

Pairing them for a show offers a chance for both to expand their audience, she said.

And while Stock acknowledges he’s never created a painting actually using oil paints on canvas, he hasn’t ruled it out, maybe once his kids are out of college, he said.

“You might very well see a canvas and me standing there painting something,” he said.

The NCI Artworks gallery is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday and by appointment by calling 815-866-5167 or emailing outreach@nciartworks.com. Admission is free.