Kenneth J. Reeve was born in Western Springs, Illinois, in 1910.  He graduated from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1930.  From then until 1949 he was associated with advertising agencies in Chicago as an artist and art director.

In 1949, the Reeve family moved to Brown County, Indiana.  Here Reeve established his studio-home and began his new career as a fine artist.  In 1952 he became an artist member of the Brown County Art Gallery Association, which had been established in Nashville in 1926 and had thereafter made Brown County well-known as the largest art colony in the Midwest.  Reeve served four years as president of the organization and many years on its board of directors, as well as in many other offices.  He was also a member of the Indiana Artists Club, The Hoosier Salon, Indiana Heritage Arts, and The Twenty Club.  His works have been exhibited with these groups over the years, as well as in many other regional and national exhibitions, winning numerous merit and purchase awards.

Reeve is best known for his realistic watercolor landscapes.  Although he has painted from coast to coast on a number of painting trips, most of his subjects are the old farm buildings found nearby in southern Indiana.  In 1955, he began working in the aquatint etching process.  Working on copper plates, he produced many etchings that have been acquired for personal and public collections both in the U.S. and abroad. The artist combined his interests in art and nature in many wildlife prints in both etchings and serigraphs. 

Reeve retired in 2000 and moved in 2005 to a retirement community in Richmond, Virginia.

Information provided by the artist's daughter, Susan R. Cash