(Please click the button at the bottom right for Spanish translation)
Before committing to paint, Kellie ran a graphic design business for 20 years. Since then she has been showing and selling her paintings for 15 years. She created vibrant acrylic and collage paintings that explore life in Colorado and the southwest desert with fresh energy based on color, pattern and design. Her paintings explore freeform layers of stencils, spray paint, collage, acrylic paints and more, often based on a loose illustration style.
Kellie spent a decade of her life climbing rock and ice and mountains around the world, and traveling to third world countries. All of these experiences inform her art.
Often beginning with spray paint, or wild lines created with a paint syringe, Kellie captures the energy of the local mountains, high desert, plants, and animals through collage and acrylic on large canvases. With pieces of Sufi poetry, handmade patterns old romance novels and more, she elaborates on powerful memories and brings them to life with textures and vibrant color palettes. Her paintings are always a treasure hunt, filled with unexpected elements.
We asked Kellie a few questions…
What is your chosen artistic medium?
Mixed media acrylic and collage.
What are you currently working on?
A series of paintings depicting the desert south of Telluride that we know and love. I’ve been exploring this southwest desert for 25 years and it’s deeply embedded in my soul.
What are your prep or practice rituals to get you into the artistic headspace?
Ideas start by getting out in the mountains and forests around here. Then they simmer in my mind for a while. All the while I’m noticing color palettes I want to try, imagining patterns within, and maybe compositions. Often I’ll think about something before bed, and then wake up with an idea and have to get right to the studio to paint it out.
What keeps you engaged and moving forward?
Projects and collaborations keep me excited and moving forward. Being alive and seeing the miraculous beauty outside keeps me engaged. Like yesterday, I stood in front of a flowering crabapple and it was filled with a thousand bees. It was like the whole tree was alive. I felt it in my body. Also, there are two little birds nesting in the cow skull above my studio, and I get to watch them hang out on the horns, or pop in and out of the eye sockets!! They will be painted. There is too much beauty to not paint for a lifetime.
Tell us about any upcoming events, releases, or anticipated projects!
I’ll be displaying my desert series at Telluride Art Headquarters for the month of June
and I’m super excited. The opening is June 6! Hope to see you there. Additional, my son is graduating from High School, and my whole world is about to shift.
