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.

Prizes

The Harden Art Prize 2023 - Finalist

Art Red Hill 2023 - Category Winner 'Highly Commended Painting/Work on Paper'

Blarney's Biblio-Art Awards 2022 - Category Winner 'Starving Artist'

Unearthed at Art to Art 2022 - Finalist

Exhibitions

2023 Hidden In the Hills, UP Gallery, Sassafras

2023 Harden Art Prize, Bendigo Bank, Harden

2023 Art Red Hill, Red Hill Consolidated School, Red Hill

2023 Biblio Art Prize, Blarney Books and Art, Port Fairy

2023 Small Works Art Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy

2022 Summer Series, 26 Advantage Gallery, Highett

2022 Elementary , Earthly Pleasures, Belgrave

2021 Off the Cuff, A MAVA Collective Group Exhibition, The Hut Gallery, Ferntree Gully

2021 Monochrome, MAVA online

2021 Fifty Squared Art Prize, Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy

2021 Wabi Sabi - the Beauty of Imperfection, Burrinja Gallery - DROS Group Exhibition, Upwey