Gerald Peters Gallery Contemporary

For More Information

Maria Hajic
Director

505 954 5719

mhajic@gpgallery.com

Maine artist Scott Kelley tells stories of the natural world in detailed watercolors. Kelley was born in Binghamton, New York and knew from a very early age he wanted to be an artist. He was naturally drawn to the style of American realist painters such as Andrew Wyeth and Rockwell Kent. Kelley received a BFA from The Cooper Union School of Art in New York City. He then attended The Slade School of Fine Art in London, and was a fellow at the Glassell School of Art in Houston. After completing his fellowship in Houston, Kelley moved to New York City and began working for artist Julian Schnabel. Kelley began drawing and painting from nature upon moving to Long Island where he was inspired by the natural world around him. Kelley now lives on Peaks Island, Maine, where he works from his home studio. Concepts for his paintings can take years to develop, shaped by his love of history and nature, often imbued with multiple layers of meaning. His detailed watercolor and gouache paintings of animals, birds, and other objects from nature are inspired from a recent trip to New Mexico.

Drawn to extreme places, I had no idea that New Mexico would prove to be so VERY extreme. It was like an endless, looping reel of old Star Trek sets -everywhere I turned there were hoodoos and mesas and hillocks of primeval mud in acidic colors. And then there were the animals: the bison and jackrabbits, pronghorns and Sandhill Cranes, and -one very early morning -a roll of very determined armadillos crossing a dirt road already 20 miles from absolutely nowhere. It was all -all of it -completely unexpected, beguiling and even, at times, seemingly very much divorced from reality. As if there is no there there, and yet -everything is, well… there.

– Scott Kelley

 

Click here to watch Scott Kelley video

Click here to see his current exhibition