A tribute to a master that is dear to us all

After five months of gallery shows across the country, The Masters of Fantasy Art - a Tribute to Keith Parkinson, has come to the Art Institute of California, San Diego. The tour arrived, for its final stop, in San Diego on June 5th.

It began in January, alongside the launch of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, as a tribute to the late Keith Parkinson, Art Director for Vanguard.SOE partnered with the Art Institute to bring the show to various campuses across the country. The tour has had successful shows in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Washington D.C. and New York where thousands of people, many of whom are avid gamers, have experienced Keith's art up close and personal. In addition, the tour has received media coverage in all markets, including multiple live hits on a DC morning show.

To celebrate the tours return home for a two-month show at the Art Institute of California, San Diego, we are sharing this review of the man and his life as written by his friends and family.

I had the honor of knowing Keith for more than seven years and he touched my life as he did all who knew him.

About the man:

Keith Parkinson was born on October 22, 1958, in West Covina, California. He attended elementary school at Weinberger School, San Diego, and graduated from Okemos High School, Lansing, Michigan. From a very young age, Keith had an interest in the arts. His take on what exactly constituted art was a little different from the definitions of most, though. Inspired by the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, he started painting sweeping landscapes occupied by fearsome monsters during high school. He quickly developed an affinity for his new hobby, and was soon splitting his time between painting and playing drums in a rock band.

Citing a desire for a more stable career as a freelance fantasy artist, Keith eventually abandoned his dreams of rock stardom and left his band to go to art school. Upon graduating from Kendall School of Design in 1980, Keith took a staff artist position at a company called Advertising Posters. Contrary to the way it sounds, the company had nothing to do with advertising or posters, and they may or may not have been owned by the mob. They were silk screen printers that printed and generated all of the art for the pinball, and blossoming arcade video industry. Keith had a direct hand in the artwork of many of the most popular games that mark the beginning of the video game industry.

After working with Advertising Posters, Keith took a job at a company called TSR -- the publishers of the popular Dungeons & Dragons role playing game. During a five year stint as a TSR staff artist he contributed to a wide variety of projects. These range from book and magazine covers to calendars to game boxes and modules. Various titles include Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Gamma World and Amazing Stories. With the help of his realistic, yet fantastic style that blended a wry humor with subtle optimism, they all became best sellers. It was during his time at TSR that his first son, Nick, was born.

After TSR, Keith decided it was time to move on to a freelance career. Just before uprooting from his Wisconsin home and moving to rural Pennsylvania, Zachary, his second son was born. The next seven years were spent primarily doing book covers for the New York publishing market. Clients include Random House, Bantam and Penguin Books. Covers for best selling authors include Terry Goodkind, David Eddings, Anne McCaffrey, Orson Scott Card, and Terry Brooks. Keith received many accolades and awards during this period from fans and his peers alike.

In 1995, Keith created a collectable card game called Guardians -- his first foray into game design. It was a new experience for him but despite that, many of the top artists in the fantasy art field contributed to the game by illustrating Keith's characters. While short-lived, Guardians was successful in great part due to the fantastic artwork and Keith’s unique brand of humor. During this time, he also released his first art book entitled "Knightsbridge: The Art of Keith Parkinson." It has long since completely sold out.
In 2000, Keith began devoting more time to writing and moved the focus of his commercial artwork into the software industry, producing art for the hugely popular EverQuest online game by Sony Online Entertainment, and THQ's Summoner. He also painted an EverQuest piece that appeared on the cover of TV GUIDE magazine.

In April of 2002, Keith was eager for a change in scenery and moved to San Diego to -- along with several EverQuest colleagues -- found Sigil Games Online. Among his many responsibilities as Art Director for Sigil Games Online, Keith created and maintained the overall style of the game, contribute to in-house concept art, in-game art, posters, promotional material, and more.
During his life, Keith traveled the world many times over. He explored castles across Europe, camped in the deserts of Kenya and wandered the busy streets of Hong Kong but his favorite place to be was always at home surrounded by friends, family, and of course, lots of paint.


After a lengthy struggle with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML), Keith passed away on October 26, 2005. He was 47 years old. He was an inspiration to everyone that knew him and he will be greatly missed.

From his son: Nick Parkinson

As a young adult, my dad had his future career narrowed down to two difference choices. A life-long drummer, option A was to tour the country with his band and become a rock star. However, one day after taking a long look at his band mates he decided to go with the safer bet and chose option B – paint dragons.

Many folks were worried that he wouldn't be able to make a living painting things likes monsters and wizards. Their worries were well founded too, because at the time there really weren't many people who could. However, now - in large part because of my dad and his peers - a whole generation of artists are doing just that.

The most important part of his art though, I think may be the hardest to physically define. It's the attitude - the essence. There's a certain feel, a spirit that can only be imbued into a piece of artwork if it exists in the person creating it. When I look at a Keith Parkinson painting I see a wondrous, noble spirit. Optimistic, but with a wry grin - knowing that not everything will go according to plan. And that was my dad. He was good spirited, good natured, good humored - just all around good. And while my dad may not be around to spread that spirit anymore, his entire body of work and those who appreciate it are.

Kids have always dreamt about growing up in a world with magic and adventure – but because of my dad, an entire generation actually got to. Not a bad mark to leave on the world, if you ask me.

--Nick Parkinson

Here are some samples of some of my favorite works.

The caption of this picture below says it all.

"The project Keith was art directing at the time of his passing, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, features three main characters. Jeric, the strong warriors, Idara, the beautiful diplomat, and Eila, the elven alchemist. This was the last thing Keith ever painted. Its frame was signed by his friends and family at his funeral in late October of 2005."

Please stop by the store and view the gallery. The store has many of his works for sale.

http://www.keithparkinson.com/main.php