Ann Kelly attended The Laird School of Art and the Liverpool College of Art and Design. In her time, she has taught painting, print making, ceramics and sculpture to groups of adults and children but now concentrates on her own work.
Describing herself as a painter in oils, Ann is influenced by light and shade and shapes in the landscape. With the use of pattern and colour, she strives to capture some mood or emotion, while at the same time including a feeling for solitude and open spaces in her work.
Ann Kelly has painted all over the U.K. as well as in France and America. She is represented by several galleries, and is a member of the Fosseway Artists group. She has had solo exhibitions, and joint exhibitions at Birmingham, Bristol Affordable Art Fair, London Olympia, Guest artist with the Dobunni Group, The Thin Dog Gallery, Cirencester, Red Rag Gallery Stow on the Wold, D’Arcy Gallery Cheltenham, Gallery 12, Polkadot Gallery Exeter, Whistler’s Gallery Lechlade, Compton Cassey Gallery, Priory Gallery Broadway, Silk top Hat Gallery Ludlow, Windsor Contemporary Art Fair, Silent Voices Gallery Hay-on-Wye, and The Great Atlantic Gallery Falmouth, and has work in private collections in U.K. Australia, France, Holland and Japan.
“I was born and brought up on the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire, so was never very far from the sea. As children, we spent almost every weekend, and most of the school holidays on one beach or another; some had sand hills, some had cliffs, or marinas, or promenades, but all had that essence that draws me back to the coast at every available chance - the sound of the waves, the smell of the salt air and the wind in my face. Although now living in the beautiful Cotswolds, which is inspiring in different ways, I return to the South and West coasts of England and Wales to paint in all seasons, and am re-inspired by the clarity of the light and the feeling of space afforded by the unspoilt coast lines, vast expanses of sea and sky and the coastal architecture of lighthouses, harbours, sea walls, beach huts and boats.”
