This story was previously published in the August 2025 edition of Connections, Dartmouth Health’s employee magazine.
By day, Kenneth Toohey is a supply chain receiving tech at Cheshire Medical Center. By night and on weekends, he’s an artist, with his paintings recently on display in a New York City gallery.
What’s notable about his success is how it happened—and how fast. He started painting just a few years ago, during the COVID pandemic, and his only teachers were online.
“I used to draw as a kid but lost the passion for it when I got into my 20s. Then, during COVID, being at home as much as we were at that time, my interest in art was reignited through watching other people draw or paint online,” Toohey said.
“I absorbed a ton of content and tried out the methods myself,” he added. “Some I liked, some I didn’t. It was trial and error. I spent many hours doing self-assessment and experimenting in palette, brushwork and other aspects of the work.”
Toohey describes his style as contemporary realism. His favorite medium is oils and his subject matter includes animals and a wide range of everyday objects, from pencils to flowers to hamburgers.
“I usually don’t have a deeper meaning to my paintings beyond their simple beauty, but I do try to choose subjects that portray a positive experience or emotion for someone viewing the painting,” he said.
His work was included in an exhibit at the George Billis Gallery in NYC. Having never been to the city or had his work displayed in a gallery, Toohey said attending the opening was a “surreal” experience.
“The gallery was packed with people. I very much enjoyed interacting with everyone about my work. I’m not too much of a social butterfly, but the New York show really brought me out of my shell.”
Toohey is planning to submit his work to local galleries in Brattleboro, VT, and the surrounding area. What does he enjoy most about painting?
“It’s very therapeutic for me,” he said, “especially getting into that flow state where you lose track of time and are just purely in the moment and nothing else matters.”
You can see his artwork, which is for sale, at kennethtoohey.com or on Instagram at Chewyangelo.