The North Beach Artist Guild has named Ken Hunt its Artist of the Month for August.

Photography has been a passion of his for more than 40 years. He still has the images he took at age 11 when he visited Colorado with his parents.

Hunt and his late wife, Carole, spent four years in Vermont while he attended medical school. He says it was there that he first felt a deep connection to the land and wanted to capture the essence of his experiences in his photography.

A Diane Arbus image titled “Twins” triggered a spiritual connection to a photograph and changed how he valued art. “I fell deep into this image and understood what it was to truly connect,” he says.

A Washington resident since 1970, Hunt has traveled throughout the country and many other areas of the world, always taking his camera. About five years ago, he moved toward abstraction in both black-and-white and color images. He says this new direction better represented what he experienced in his heart.

Joining what he calls a “renaissance in the world of photography,” he uses mixed media as well as metal leaf to enhance his photos, which he prints on vellum paper. Always evolving into new and different techniques, he says photography has offered him a portal into the mystery, wonder and spiritual meaning of our world, where he can truly express the emotion of place and time in the language of his work.

An artist reception will be held for Hunt at the Gallery of Ocean Shores during the Aug. 17 Art Walk, from noon to 4 p.m. Food and refreshments will be served.

The gallery is located at Home Port Plaza, 849 Pt. Brown Ave., in Ocean Shores.

For additional information, contact Joan Brewster at 253-961-6366 or ejbrew@comcast.net.