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DARIEN, Conn. More than a couple of decades ago, a young Kevin Geary and his parents ventured into London for Chinese food. By the end of the meal, Geary had set the course for his own fame and fortune.
My mother knew I was good at art, and I was also a pretty good pianist, said Geary, his English accent often punctuated by laughter. So my mother and father asked me, over dinner, what do I want to be: an artist or a pianist. I said to them neither, I want to be a political cartoonist!
And so Geary became a cartoonist for England's Financial Times. He would wake early, take in the day's events and produce a piece by 4:30 p.m. to be taken by courier to London. Ultimately, his style clashed with the paper's format design, so they parted company.
But one of those cartoons caught the eye of Sir Edward Heath, who served as Britain's prime minister from 1970 to 1974. The politician acquired the piece, and it still hangs prominently in his museum home.
In the years that followed, Geary also became friends with Sir Harold Wilson, who served as prime minister from 1964 to 1970 and again from 1974 to 1976. It was during this time that the cartoonist would find his true life's work: portraiture.
Since then, some of the most powerful and influential people in the world have sat for Geary. His list of clients includes but is not limited to Golda Meir, Henry Kissinger, Ella Fitzgerald, Pope John Paul II and Sen. John McCain. He never returned to the world of political cartooning.
Geary even gave up portraiture for a few years, focusing on abstract art. He liked having the ability to work on pieces with more interpretation and freedom in expression. A few requests, including one from a Connecticut art dealer, brought him back.
Geary painted the portrait of Cassie Geary that hangs in Darien's Geary Gallery. The piece was done after her death in an automobile accident. Her father, Tom Geary, commissioned the piece.
Despite a common last name and a love of art, the two Geary men share no relation and have never met in person. They came to each other's attention via a mutual acquaintance who attended one of Kevin's poetry readings in Arizona.
Geary recalled a visit to the National Portrait Gallery in London when he was still new as a portraiture artist. I remember thinking, wouldn't it be wonderful to be in this museum? And then, of course, I immediately thought, well, that will never happen. The only way to get in here would be if your subject or you are dead. And often you both have to be, he said, laughing.
That prediction proved wrong. His portrait of clarinetist Jack Brymer now hangs in the museum, and both the artist and the subject attended the reception.
At one point, he ventured upstairs at the museum and spotted one of the paintings that inspired his own style. He had first seen it on that day he falsely determined his work would never hang in the National Portrait Gallery.
Staring at the unfinished painting of William Wilberforce by Sir Thomas Lawrence, Geary said he smiled and thought, I wanted to be here, and this is that painting that I saw all those years ago. And now, I am also here.
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