Dennis Kelly
Although not formally trained, Dennis Kelly ASU has painted for over twenty-five years, consistently using the medium of enamel paint on board.
In his late teens and early twenties, Dennis’ art found expression through poetry, but increasingly he found that words alone did not sufficiently express his personal vision and he looked to painting instead.
His choice of medium was initially incidental. As a teenager, Dennis was an avid model maker and had accumulated a large collection of enamel paints to decorate his models. Dennis’ father was a joiner and his workshop invariably contained off-cuts of wood. With these two ingredients, Dennis began to explore his strongly personal vision of the world.
Dennis has always believed in the use of painting not simply as a representational pastime but more as a philosophical tool, a means to question the reality which humanity takes for granted. This interest has lead him through a fascination with the Surrealist and Metaphyiscal movements blended with an abiding love of the science fiction genre, perspective drawing and architectural form. The underlying theme in much of the work is an unspoken unease and it is true to say that the Troubles have had some bearing on his paintings. Nonetheless, Dennis has also a deep love of the great Irish Landscape, essentially the West Coast and has taken much inspiration from the ancient stones of Mayo and Kerry and the trees of the woods around his hometown of Belfast.
Dennis Kelly invariably signs his work in the reverse rather than on the painting itself in order not to deface the image with intrusive detail.
In his late teens and early twenties, Dennis’ art found expression through poetry, but increasingly he found that words alone did not sufficiently express his personal vision and he looked to painting instead.
His choice of medium was initially incidental. As a teenager, Dennis was an avid model maker and had accumulated a large collection of enamel paints to decorate his models. Dennis’ father was a joiner and his workshop invariably contained off-cuts of wood. With these two ingredients, Dennis began to explore his strongly personal vision of the world.
Dennis has always believed in the use of painting not simply as a representational pastime but more as a philosophical tool, a means to question the reality which humanity takes for granted. This interest has lead him through a fascination with the Surrealist and Metaphyiscal movements blended with an abiding love of the science fiction genre, perspective drawing and architectural form. The underlying theme in much of the work is an unspoken unease and it is true to say that the Troubles have had some bearing on his paintings. Nonetheless, Dennis has also a deep love of the great Irish Landscape, essentially the West Coast and has taken much inspiration from the ancient stones of Mayo and Kerry and the trees of the woods around his hometown of Belfast.
Dennis Kelly invariably signs his work in the reverse rather than on the painting itself in order not to deface the image with intrusive detail.