Arthur "Van Art" Keene

Hello, I am Tobias Keene, living and working in Los Angeles, CA. I discovered the HistoricCoventryForum.co.uk researching my Grandfather - Arthur Joseph "Van Art" Keene. If anyone know of links to works and location of actual paintings anywhere in the U.K. by either my Grandfather and/or father Arthur Keene please reach out to artists@keene.art. I would appreciate this very much. Thank-You, Tobias Keene August 2026

Hi Tobias, welcome to the forum Good luck with your search. It looks like your Grandfather should be on Rob's list of famous Coventrians.

Hi Tobias. My name is Roger Male and my mother was a close friend of your grandfather during the 70s and 80s. I have a sketch of my mum by Arthur and I donated a large painting of her to the Herbert Art gallery in Coventry many years ago. I'm sure somewhere I have photos of some war time cartoons which he did for the Coventry Evening Telegraph. I have various photos of him with my mum and with my son and daughter at Meriden Hall where he lived. If you're interested I will search them out. Best regards Roger Male

Hi Roger and welcome to our forum. How wonderful that your mum had such a close connection to Mr. Van Art himself! I hope that Tobias will get in touch with you about this.

Thanks Rob. Yes I would really like to share photos etc with Tobias. Arthur was a larger than life character and added a lot of fun and excitement to my Mum's later years.