Nick Kelly Go back
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I was born in Whitstable, Kent in 1951. After a few enjoyable years travelling, I trained as a teacher, specialising in Drama and Media. Working as a volunteer teacher in Egypt with VSO in 1975, I began my love of Arabic and the Middle East. I took up a post in Qatar in 1977 where I continued to live for twenty-three years. In 2000 I came back to the UK and worked as a freelance newsreader with the BBC World Service. I now work at home in Whitstable, devoting my time to painting and writing. Single Man Dancing Alone is my second book, the sequel to The House of Fortune.
My paintings are mainly concerned with the coast. Having grown up by the sea in Whitstable, I find the sea a constant source of inspiration for my paintings. Over the last twenty years I have produced work that is both figurative and more impressionistic. Many of my larger canvases are towards the abstract. Very often I sketch by the sea and then when I'm back in the studio my imagination runs riot.
Lately I've been working on a series of pen and watercolour sketches from my walks around the Kent coast from the Isle of Sheppey to the border of Kent and East Sussex at Dungeness. I find myself drawn to the emptiness of deserted beaches, probably due to my earlier career in the Middle East and its vast deserts. Previously painting empty landscapes but now I include figures, perhaps only just one. I like exploring the relationship of the land and humanity from a single walker alone with his thoughts, to the mass gatherings of beach lovers at Margate and Broadstairs. It's all fascinating.
My paintings are mainly concerned with the coast. Having grown up by the sea in Whitstable, I find the sea a constant source of inspiration for my paintings. Over the last twenty years I have produced work that is both figurative and more impressionistic. Many of my larger canvases are towards the abstract. Very often I sketch by the sea and then when I'm back in the studio my imagination runs riot.
Lately I've been working on a series of pen and watercolour sketches from my walks around the Kent coast from the Isle of Sheppey to the border of Kent and East Sussex at Dungeness. I find myself drawn to the emptiness of deserted beaches, probably due to my earlier career in the Middle East and its vast deserts. Previously painting empty landscapes but now I include figures, perhaps only just one. I like exploring the relationship of the land and humanity from a single walker alone with his thoughts, to the mass gatherings of beach lovers at Margate and Broadstairs. It's all fascinating.