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Denise
Kelly at work.
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Like most artists, Denise Kelly remembers that she
always hoped that one day that she too would be an artist.
Even when she was earning a living as a fashion
designer in New York, she says the thought of painting was never far
from her mind. But the demands of a fast-paced, competitive career
allowed little leeway for indulging a pastime, no matter how much she
wanted it. She tried, to be sure, but never progressed beyond it being
an occasional luxury.
It wasn’t until she retired, and she and her
husband, David, moved to the Cape, that her dream of a career as an
artist would be fulfilled. “I knew that when I retired I’d go back
to painting.” What she didn’t expect was that the learning process
would be as exhilarating, or painful or as frustrating as it was.
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Denise Kelly likes to paint. She paints daily. “I
start at nine in the morning and work until noon. I then take a break
and work from one to three in the afternoon.” It’s been that way
since she started.
In the beginning she set up a studio in the corner
of a sewing room. It didn’t take long, however, before she realized
that an artist’s studio required most what she lacked, more space.
Sensing her growing frustration with her cramped quarters, her husband,
whom she says has always been supportive of her efforts, began work on a
studio at the rear of their Truro home. “It was the most wonderful
gift in the world,” she says with what is unmistakably genuine
affection.
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Everything seemed to be in place to launch a
serious effort to perfect her chosen craft. Her studio gave her the
space she needed to paint and keep her supplies. Her desire to succeed
as an artist, coupled with raw talent, more than made up for the late
start. But she lacked experience.
Still, she painted all the time, and when she
wasn’t painting, she studied the work of others who were accomplished
in their field. “There were times when I’d feel a little low and
inspiration wasn’t flowing,” she says of those early days, “then
I’d go out and
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"Morning
on the Pond", 14"x18", o/c,
© by Denise
Kelly
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look at the work of artists I really admired, and that
would get the process going for me.”
She says she greatly admired and studied Joseph
McGurl’s work, and was brought to the brink of tears one day,
overwhelmed by the perfection of a Donald Demers painting.
With her technical
ability improving weekly, she realized that if she was going to achieve
the level of perfection she sought, as hard as she tried, she could not
do it on her own. She needed more. Although there were many artists to
choose from, Kelly sought the advice of an artist whom she knew and
whose work she admired, Curtis Rosser. “I wanted him to be my teacher,
my instructor.”
She approached
Rosser one day and asked if he would work with her and give her some
pointers. His answer was somewhat abrupt. “He didn’t ask to see my
work. He first wanted to see my studio.” Taken aback slightly, she
invited him to her studio, and after a brief inspection that seemed
aimed at accomplishing no more than gauging the level of her
commitment, Rosser agreed to be her mentor.
Although she
didn’t say it in so many words, becoming an artist was about to
resemble something akin to a new recruit tackling boot camp ¾
and it started immediately for her. Rosser wasn’t one to mince words.
He was dealing with a woman who in her retirement wanted to enter a
profession others had given entire careers to perfecting. “He didn’t
like anything I did and he told me so at our first meeting. He was very
critical of my work ¾
everything. I would come to him with a painting and he would criticize
me and I was devastated by it.” Frustrated by his abruptness at first,
she nonetheless followed his direction and listened closely to his
advice. Still, each time she went back and showed him a new painting he
found a new reason to criticize. He insisted that she do better.
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But something began
to happen along the way. She was getting better; her eye for
detail sharpened. She learned new techniques. Her appreciation for
skills she observed in others was heightened, too. But most surprising,
she says, she actually wanted to please the man she began to see as a
“a mentor and friend.”
“I found that I was utterly pleased with his
criticisms. He taught me how to learn, not just paint. He gave me
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"Truro Marsh",
10"x20", o/c,
© by Denise
Kelly
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confidence and urged me to develop my own way of painting by studying
other artists.”
With her increasing self-confidence, a strict
painting regimen and improved style, Kelly began to seek out artist
associations on the Cape and conversations with others in the field
about their methods. To focus her energies, and waste as little time as
possible, she made a decision not to experiment with any other medium.
She would stay with oils. “Because I started late, I realized it was
too late to try anything else.”
She also developed a preference for working alone
in her studio, listening to classical music. “One of the deep secrets
of artists is that the best painting is done in a studio where you
don’t have to contend with things like changes in light, flies, wind
and shadows.”
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"Bay Anchorage", 24" x 24", o/c
© by Denise
Kelly
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This doesn’t mean her paintings are conceptual.
Indeed, she is emphatic about her accuracy as a realist painter. “I
don’t paint anything I don’t know for a fact is absolutely
correct,” she says. Boats, and sailboats, especially, she says, must
be correct to the smallest detail. Her husband, whom she defers to in
such matters, always checks her marine work for accuracy.
But as important to her work as accuracy is,
striking the right balance with mood is equally important. “When I
paint, I paint in a realistic way, but what I am really trying to
capture is a mood. My object is not to paint a perfect boat, although
that is what I will do. What I want is to create a scene that sets a
mood.” If she can accomplish that, she says, she’s is happy.
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“I view every painting I do as a step toward a
better painting, followed by a better painting.”
It’s as if Rosser is sitting behind her urging her to do it
better, even today. And not
surprisingly, she is doing it better. But in her eyes, better is not the
same as best. “My dreams are greater than simply painting a lot. I
strive for a level I haven’t reached yet. Perhaps in three years
I’ll be where I want, but then I’ll be dissatisfied again.”
Kelly’s big break came in 1997 after a successful
show at the Creative Art Center in Chatham, where one of her
paintings earned a “Best in Show” award in the “Leo Diehl Show”.
“They used my painting on the promotion card for the next show,” she
says with pride.
In 1998 one of her paintings won ‘First Prize’
in the same show. It was
shortly thereafter that the owners of Winstanley-Roark Fine Arts
noticed her work. “Bob and Anita contacted me and invited me to meet
with them. I left pictures of my work at their gallery on a Friday
morning, and Friday afternoon they called me and invited me to
participate in their “Small Works’ show.
Denise Kelly had arrived. Her Cape landscapes, town
scenes and marine paintings are sought by collectors and casual buyers
alike. Cape Cod Life said this of her: “Ms. Kelly has
established herself as one of the Cape’s most ‘talked about’ new
artists.”
Even with her growing success, however, Kelly says she
is “still striving to be better, reaching for another level, which at
times can be quite painful. But when it’s great,” she is quick to
add, “it’s fantastic.” |
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