Ken Wilson grew up in Albany’s Arbor Hill neighborhood and became fascinated by art at an early age.

“I was one of those precocious kids who would go to the library at the school, check out books on Greek statues, and I would draw,” he said as he worked on his latest oil painting creation, Sanctum.

As he got older, Wilson would spend hours at the Albany Institute of History and Art, where he’d admire landscape paintings.

“I would stand inches away staring at it,” he recalled. “Security is looking at me, like ‘who is this kid? I passed through here 45 minutes ago and this kid is still standing here staring at this painting.’ ”

When it came time to choose a career, he became a New York State trooper. His love for art, though, didn’t fade.

“I would bring my camera with me when I was out on patrol, and when things were quiet, I would take photos of landscape around me and I would paint those landscapes,” he said.

In 2006, Wilson retired and took to art full-time.

“There is not a whole a lot of people who do exactly what I do,” he said.

His work consists of plein air painting, which is a French term for painting outdoors. Wilson also spends time at the Saratoga Race Course, and it’s not to gamble.

“I’m more interested in the power and majesty of the horses themselves, the athleticism,” he said.

Wilson was recently contacted by a friend, an equine writer, with a surprising claim that he is the first and only Black artist in the country to create and sell work at a major horse racing track. Wilson did some research of his own and didn’t find any contradicting information. He hopes his story inspires young Black men interested in art.

“It’s something young kids can say, ‘hey listen, I’m not gonna back away from doing something that would be my dream, whether it’d be ballet, whether it’d be flying airplanes, whether it’d be art, because we don’t do that,’ ” he said.

And for those considering art as a career, Wilson’s best advice, in addition to learning how to paint, is knowing when to stop.

“You get to the point where you lay the strokes in, when it says what it needs to say, stop talking,” he said. “Walk away from it.”

Some of Wilson’s work is on display at the Pause Gallery in Troy through mid-March.