Kelly's landscape pieces reflect the natural environments around her.
The forest, ever-changing and vast in its display, communicates to all the senses.
It is Kelly’s pursuit to immerse the viewer fully, as if they are watching nature grow and evolve in front of their eyes.
To arrest a moment in which light and water falls in sync for just a fleeting moment.
The artworks created are not intended to be a realistic interpretation of the landscape – more an augmented version of light, natural weather changes and the textures of the environment.
Kelly predominantly works in oil, and occasionally pastel and watercolour, for their abilities to blend.
She finds this complements her practice as she can keep coming back, adding depth and nuance when developing her pieces.
Occasionally she brings artwork to life alla prima, but usually she works on multiple pieces in different stages of drying, waiting for the next layer to emerge.
Nature is an ever evolving story. To represent this perpetual narrative she constructs landscapes over many layers. Her deliberately muted palette is used to accurately portray the echoes of shifting weather. Her artistic notion of developing a work, rolling and blending like the environment, is also reflected by one of her favourite quotes by Picasso, “I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else.”
As well as painting, Kelly runs a short-term beach rental house while restoring her 130-year-old home and gardens with her husband and 3 sons and she is often between McCrae on the Mornington Peninsula and their home situated in Sherbrooke Forest. In this traversal, she is constantly inspired by the fleeting, itinerant and ever-changing nature around her.