Ken Evans was a young boy in the early 1950s when he received a John Gnagy charcoal drawing set as a gift. From his Connecticut home in Stamford, with fog horns wailing in the distance, he could see Long Island Sound and began sketching scenes of ships and the sea. A passion for painting and the ocean grew, and has continued unabated. Today Evans, who will be 81 in August, lives in Yarmouth Port with a nearby view of Cape Cod Bay and continues to produce alluring art of coastal beauty.

“I was just a kid doing what I liked. It seemed to come to me naturally,” says Evans of his childhood hobby, “and there’s something soothing about the water. I’m not always trying to paint a pretty picture, but if a feeling of repose translates to people, that’s as much as I can hope for.”

Evans is also an accomplished drummer in the rock band The Fifth Estate, which has been together since the 1960s. (They had hits including the Wizard of Oz song “Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead.”) His love of art and music drew him to New York’s vibrant Greenwich Village, where his band often played and he studied in the city’s many museums. Evans earned an engineering degree from the University of Connecticut and a doctorate from New England School of Law in Boston. He had a successful practice representing artists and musicians until retiring to the Cape in 1999. But he is anything but a retired artist.

“The law was my 9-to-5 job, and art was more of an aside,” he says. “I was able to retire in my 50s, still young enough to do something useful, so painting became more full time. I do something art-related nearly every day; working on a frame or toning a canvas. I’ve never really lost creative energy. In some ways, with less distractions, I have more than ever.”

Working predominantly with oils, Evans often paints en plein air, outside his home studio. However, there is a less-is-more abstraction to his art. “I use what’s there, but put things in and take things out,” he says. “I’ll go back several times because clouds come by, and light changes. A painting for me isn’t one scene but a merger of time. I’m hoping six months from now you’ll see things you might not have first seen.”

His process includes subtle techniques; an active use of the palette knife; dripping, dragging and scraping; blending layers of tinting glazes and lacquer to achieve an effect of light bouncing from the toned canvas. “I’ll even use my hands and fingers,” says Evans. “Painting is a rhythm somewhat like drumming. Controlling the brush and sticks are similar.”

Evans credits 19th century English Romantic Joseph William Turner, “the painter of light,” as a foundational influence. He admires and has studied with Joseph McGurl of Cataumet, Russian-born Connecticut landscape artist Kirill Doron and British maritime artist John Stobart, whom he calls a mentor.

“Most artists, I think, have ideas that come from others,” says Evans. “My work isn’t exactly Impressionism or Realism. A lot of pieces are those genres and then hopefully different styles merge into one you can call your own.”

Evans has taught at the Cape Cod Museum of Art and been a board member at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod. He had a one-person, 24-piece show, “The Lost Ports of Cape Cod,” at the Cape Cod Maritime Museum and for many years the entryway to the museum featured his piece Building Belle of the West.

“I’ve recently figured out that painting reminds me now of childhood. Life isn’t as busy as it once was and there’s a sense of peacefulness,” says Evans. “I’ve come full circle. My wife and I like to travel and appreciate the beauty which surrounds us. I have a deeply felt need to help preserve our incredible planet and leave something behind that keeps it a nicer place.”  

Evans’ work is shown at the Borsari Gallery in Dennis and the Sheldon Fine Art Gallery in Newport, Rhode Island. His website kennethevansart.com includes a virtual viewing room. He has a new album, Then and Now, coming out at TheFifthEstateBand.com.