Patti Kelly_Art Shop 1.jpg
Juniper Rag_Torrid_ Patti Kelly.jpg
Patti Kelly_Art Shop 1.jpg
Juniper Rag_Torrid_ Patti Kelly.jpg

Spring 1

$175.00

Patti Kelly, Massachusetts

Materials: Mixed media on Arches watercolor paper

Size: 7.5 × 6.5 inches [click image for full view]

US Continental Shipping: Included in price.

There is a magnetic emotional pull to the abstract paintings from Patti Kelly. Based in Worcester, Massachusetts, Patti creates atmospheric works that feel so personal and universally felt — paintings that move like weather, seasons and landscapes at once. Her expressive mark-making, layered textures and sweeping gestures invite viewers into her moody worlds, immersive and beautifully alive. Working primarily in acrylic and watercolor, Patti builds luminous surfaces creating work that feels spontaneous and profoundly intentional.

What makes Patti’s work so compelling is the balance she achieves between chaos and calm. Her abstractions often borrow from the changing New England landscape, channeling the drama of storms, shifting seasons, shadow, and light into emotionally resonant compositions. There is movement in every piece — scraping, flowing, layering, dissolving — but also an elegance and rhythm that rewards repeated viewing. Her paintings never dictate meaning; instead, they leave space for the collector to emotionally enter the work and discover something different each time.

Beyond the canvas, Patti Kelly has long been a vital force in the Massachusetts arts community as both an exhibiting artist and educator. A graduate of the School of the Worcester Art Museum and, she has taught throughout Massachusetts and on the faculty of the. Her work carries the confidence and maturity of an artist who understands abstraction not simply as style, but as emotional language. For collectors seeking artwork that brings atmosphere, sophistication, depth, and lasting emotional impact into a space, Patti Kelly’s paintings are unforgettable. We are thrilled to offer these small accessibly priced works on paper from Patti Kelly.

Patti Kelly, Massachusetts

Materials: Mixed media on Arches watercolor paper

Size: 7.5 × 6.5 inches [click image for full view]

US Continental Shipping: Included in price.

There is a magnetic emotional pull to the abstract paintings from Patti Kelly. Based in Worcester, Massachusetts, Patti creates atmospheric works that feel so personal and universally felt — paintings that move like weather, seasons and landscapes at once. Her expressive mark-making, layered textures and sweeping gestures invite viewers into her moody worlds, immersive and beautifully alive. Working primarily in acrylic and watercolor, Patti builds luminous surfaces creating work that feels spontaneous and profoundly intentional.

What makes Patti’s work so compelling is the balance she achieves between chaos and calm. Her abstractions often borrow from the changing New England landscape, channeling the drama of storms, shifting seasons, shadow, and light into emotionally resonant compositions. There is movement in every piece — scraping, flowing, layering, dissolving — but also an elegance and rhythm that rewards repeated viewing. Her paintings never dictate meaning; instead, they leave space for the collector to emotionally enter the work and discover something different each time.

Beyond the canvas, Patti Kelly has long been a vital force in the Massachusetts arts community as both an exhibiting artist and educator. A graduate of the School of the Worcester Art Museum and, she has taught throughout Massachusetts and on the faculty of the. Her work carries the confidence and maturity of an artist who understands abstraction not simply as style, but as emotional language. For collectors seeking artwork that brings atmosphere, sophistication, depth, and lasting emotional impact into a space, Patti Kelly’s paintings are unforgettable. We are thrilled to offer these small accessibly priced works on paper from Patti Kelly.

Patti Kelly, Worcester, Massachusetts

Statement:

Sitting in front of a blank canvas sometimes I have a plan and sometimes it may just be the first color placed on the surface. Then the second color.  The process begins. Following the brush, palette knife or scraper, I step into a room filled with color, music, vibration which takes me to far away places.  These journeys allow the materials to relate with each other.  The colors become the focus then the shapes and then the marks come together and alive.

My process starts by seeing and looking for hours outside my space. By going on walks around neighborhoods, on paths in parks and woods, driving by open spaces and vast skies dreaming about what is beyond the sky and what is underneath the ground.  My work is an abstract expression with color and mood as my focus. I hope the viewer will feel that space and want to step into their own reflections and memories.

With these recent paintings, they were created while the world around us is still turning dark and upside down. I find I still have this urgency to create everyday. These paintings are a reflection of these challenges and feelings.  Anticipation and surprise, what will the piece look like?

What will our world look like as we wait for the pieces to become whole again.

Bio:

Patti Kelly is a Worcester, Massachusetts–based abstract painter and educator whose work is known for its sweeping movement, layered surfaces and atmospheric interpretation of the natural world. Inspired by shifting landscapes, changing weather, and intuition, Kelly creates paintings that blur the line between abstraction and landscape. Working with acrylic, watercolor, graphite and mixed media, she builds textured compositions through gestural mark-making, scraping and layering, resulting in work that feels intimate and familiar. Her paintings often reflect the drama and quiet beauty of New England, capturing fleeting moments of light, motion and transformation right in her backyard.

Kelly studied at the School of the Worcester Art Museum and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Massachusetts College of Art and Design before completing a Master’s degree in Education from Framingham State University. Alongside her studio practice, she has had a longstanding career as an educator, teaching throughout Massachusetts and serving on the faculty of the Worcester Art Museum. Her influence as both an artist and teacher has made her a respected figure within the Central Massachusetts arts community.

Her work has been exhibited widely in juried and invitational exhibitions throughout New England and featured in exhibitions through Juniper Rag, including the notable sell out at the TORRID show. Kelly’s well attended solo exhibition “In My Backyard” highlighted her distinctive approach to abstraction, drawing so much praise. There were red dots on almost every one. Collectors are drawn to the depth and atmosphere within her paintings, as well as her ability to suggest landscape and experience without relying on direct representation.

Through decades of painting, teaching and exhibiting, Patti has developed a body of work that is unmistakably her own — very sophisticated, intuitive and rooted in observation. Her paintings invite viewers to slow down, look more closely and discover something new within the surface each time they return. We are honored to have an artist of Patti’s caliber in our Juniper Rag community.