Biography
Anne-Marie Kelly studied Advanced Graphic Design as a postgraduate at Central St Martin's School of Art, London, where she specialised in illustration. For 8 and a half years she lived in Limassol, Cyprus, where she worked as an artist, illustrator and lecturer, and managed her own art gallery.
Teaching has always been an important element in Anne-Marie's professional practice. She has lectured and taught Art and Design in further and higher education colleges and private schools in London, Cyprus and Dorset since 1982, with subjects including fine art, textiles, life-drawing, illustration and interior design. She has also run a variety of children's mixed-media workshops for local education authorities.Anne-Marie Kelly is an associate member of Weymouth Artists Network and the Bournemouth Southern Contemporaries.
On moving to Dorset from Cyprus, Anne-Marie's paintings began to evolve: the Mediterranean light was slowly replaced by a moodier, atmospheric response to the dramatic and powerful shifts in seasons, colours and textures of the Dorset landscape. Being surrounded by the beautiful Jurassic Coast, the sea has become a powerful source of inspiration.
Anne-Marie lived in Weymouth, Dorset for several years, before moving to the island of Portland in a desire to be closer to the sea. This inspired a new series of works, which refer to the rocky outcrops and coastal walks, and the tremendous sunrises and sunsets which now greet her on a daily basis.
Living only a short distance from Chesil Beach, Anne-Marie walks frequently along the coastline, making sketches and annotations, which she then develops in the studio, attempting to capture the essence of her experiences.
Her work is very much a personal and intimate response to the levels of energies within the surrounding landscape, and her intentions are to evoke the spirit and essence of places that she has visited, recorded and committed to memory.
