Born in 1957, in Omaha, Nebraska. English was raised in a rural town near Colorado Springs, and completed his formal artistic training at the Rocky Mountain School of Art in Denver, Colorado in 1979. After graduation, he joined the faculty at the Art Students League of Denver and the Scottsdale Artists School. 

English depicts the profound moments of beauty often hidden within the particulars of daily life. A master of painterly chiaroscuro, his work remarks on the powerful harmony that exists between light and shadow in nature. While much of his subject matter is pulled from local venues, English loves to travel, and responds to the inherent beauty he finds in each new destination. 

Recent trips (Europe, South America, and the American Southwest) have provided English with ample opportunities to discover new material. With an explorer's enthusiasm, he records his journeys in quick pencil sketches and small color studies that can be further developed in the studio. 

Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of English's work is his astonishing manipulation of his medium. Using the alla prima method, he typically finishes a piece in one sitting, granting his pictures an immediacy and instinctive quality that is recognizable across a wide range of subject matter. He compentently transitions from thin washes of color to buttery areas of generously applied paint, creating texture and reinforcing the impact of his overall design. 

English is an accomplished pianist and composer, and he has likened the simplicity of his painting style to the rhythm, movement, and balance of composing music. Indeed, repetitions and variations of small spots of bright color in his work harmonize with the steadying effects of a few strokes of neutral tones. 

The work of Kim English might aptly be appreciated on an abstract level-his arrangements of color and shape are pleasing in their own right. However, as the literal content reveals itself to the viewer, one cannot help but acknowledge that his facile technique is befitting of his subject matter. Regardless of the locale, his primary muse is the behavior of light and the challenge of capturing these effects with a levity that conveys the fleeting nature of some of life's most beautiful moments. 

English has exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the NAWA 21st Annual Exhibition, Arts for the Parks, the Colorado Governor's Invitational at the Loveland Museum, the A.R. Mitchell Memorial Museum of Western Art, The Knickerbocker 42nd Annual Exhibition, and with the Oil Painters of America. He has shown with the allied Artists of America and was awarded their Gold Medal of Honor. He has also won both the Certificate of Merit and the Joseph Hartley Memorial Award from the Salmagundi Club in New York.