Lorraine Kelly

Lorraine Kelly grew up in London, Ontario and now resides in Niagara-on-the-Lake. In grade school, she received her first “art award” for “Best Artist in Grade 8.”

Her most recent award was “Best in Show” at the Niagara Falls Art Gallery. Early in her career, she worked as a research lab technician at Western University, London, Ontario, St Joseph's Hospital, Hamilton and the Cytogenetics Department at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. She also attended her first art class at the Dundas Valley School of Art.

She lived in England for 13 years. Her work was shown in galleries in England and she taught watercolour classes. From England, she moved to the United States.

While living in the United States, she attended various workshops and art schools. The most significant one for Lorraine was the Georgia O’Keefe workshop. Living in Singapore for 8 years, she taught watercolour and acrylic classes for 7 years and enrolled in a private Chinese Brush Painting course.

After moving back to Canada, she rejoined the Parkway Artists Guild and was nominated Programme Chair for 4 1/2 years. She entered various juried shows where she received the award for “Best in Show”, from the Niagara Falls Art Gallery. She also began her series of slide show presentations, now known as “Artist or Environment- what makes an artist paint the way they do.”

She taught watercolour classes at the Niagara Creative Art Centre in St Catharines, workshops for the Parkway Artists Guild and conducted a Bridal Workshop at the King Street Gallery, where she was an exhibiting artist. She was juried into Rooted in the Garden, held by Niagara Parks Botanical Garden in Niagara Falls, Ontario and juried into the Pelham Art Festival. Kelly had three solo exhibitions, one being at the Niagara Pumphouse Fine Arts Centre for two months, called “Beyond the Blue”. This is still available to watch on YouTube.

She is a contributing artist in Arabella Magazine, May 2022 and the Niagara Arts Collective magazine 2023. She is an exhibiting artist at ARTSPACE106, a gallery in Niagara-on-the-Lake. She was also accepted as a juried guest artist at the Summer and Grace Gallery in Oakville in 2022.

“My work tends to be more abstract at the beginning and then quite often somewhere in the process switches to more graphic lines. I find most of the time I do not consciously control this process.

I work intuitively, mostly from nature and treasured memories. I use photos for inspiration only, then forget about the photo by using colours and a design that excites me, resulting in “organized abstraction.”

When working on large canvases, I ask myself if it is the freedom of colour choice or just the size of the canvas that excites me. I start my painting process like many artists with mark-making. There is nothing more daunting than facing a big white canvas with nothing on it. By using pencils, pens, chalk and paint I quickly cover the canvas right at the beginning of the painting process. I also leave some room for mark-making at the end. This is where I pay more attention to negative painting.

When you fall in love with a painting, there will be a place for it in your home. When this happens, it is magic.”