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The Palm Beach Daily News
published the following article in the Real Estate - Home Showcase
section on Friday February 28th, 2003.
"Curtis Kelly's Home an
Extension of Her Art" By Christine Davis.
Curtis Kelly's pink bungalow in
Grandview Heights (above) is set up to showcase her art collection, her
own oil paintings and gouaches and her husband's collection of Western
art.
Cream walls create a perfect
backdrop. The lines of her white sofas are simple, as are the lines of
her antique furniture. Dark hard wood floors are covered with oriental
carpets. Lamps and accessories are white.
Once the environment is set,
don't let anything stop you when it comes to hanging the paintings you
love, advises Kelly, who has been painting ever since she moved to
Florida 15 years ago.
Everything was right, she says,
the light, the timing and the weather. She bought a little Spanish
bungalow in Palm Beach, converted the garage into a studio and started
painting. "I thought leaving New York would be culture shock, but once I
discovered Palm Beach, I felt I'd found home."
A few years later, on a trip to
her hometown in Michigan, she reconnected with her childhood sweetheart
and her life took another unexpected turn. "His mother was visiting my
mother," she recalls, "and I asked about Bernie, whose wife had died two
years earlier. His mom said 'Why don't you call him? He's just down the
road." She hadn't talked to him since grade school, but she called, they
arranged to meet, and shortly thereafter they married. "It was like
something out of a storybook," says Kelly. "I guess I'm a late bloomer
in more ways than one."
They moved from the Palm Beach
bungalow to a larger British
Colonial/Craftsman-style house in Grandview Heights, which Bernie is
renovating--and to which he is adding a new studio. "He has to be
finished soon, because we're on the Grandview Heights historic house
tour on April 13th. It's a great motivator," she says.
Kelly's work has gone in two
directions: She paints still lifes in highly saturated colors and uses
pattern on pattern. "It feels slightly baroque but with a modern twist,"
she says, noting that she admires the work of Henri Matisse and feels
her work resembles his in terms of color and pattern.
She paints in oils and gouache,
a water-soluble medium with more viscosity than watercolor that lends
itself to the color and patterns she likes. In her work, you will often
see flowers in a flowered vase against a flowered background.
She never works from
photographs. She collects objects, which might work into her paintings.
"I have a huge collection of glass and pottery and I also scour fabric
shops for odds and ends, and I look for rich fabrics with great color.
I'll go to the florist and poke around. They know me and let me go into
the back room. Then I set them up--that's almost an art in itself. You
have to get your composition right in your setup or it won't be right in
your painting."
A year ago, Kelly started doing
abstract work. "I believe an artist can have more than one direction. I
think in some ways that helps you grow. What you learn from the abstract
(continued on picture)
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Bernie and Curtis |
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British Colonial/Craftsman in Grandview Heights before renovation. It's across the street from the Pink Bungalow. More of Curtis Kelley's work • Profile in The Palm Beacher Magazine |
