Biography: Kelly McNeil

Kelly graduated from Ontario College of Art in the early eighties. She has shown her work in various galleries and wildlife shows across North America such as Morrison Gallery, Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, Gallery B, Lexington, Kentucky, The Metropolitan Frame and Art Gallery, Ormond Beach, Florida, The South Eastern Wildlife Exposition, Charleston, South Carolina, Buckhorn Fine Art Festival, Buckhorn, Ontario, she has been featured with a group of wildlife artists at Art of the Animal Kingdom, Bennington Center for the Arts, Bennington, Vermont and in November, 2006 she was at the Plantation Wildlife Festival, Thomasville, Georgia, she has always been well received and is always in demand for teaching workshops, she is a member of the Portrait Society of Canada. Kelly loves to paint portraiture and wildlife. She loves drama in her painting. It is Kelly’s bold use of colour that has brought attention to her work.

Artist Statement

When I paint, there has to be a story for me. I want to capture the energy and drama in nature. The use of the pure warm colours in my palette helps to breathe life into my work. I use no black, preferring to create my own darks.
It was after I started painting wildlife, that I first started noticing exotic wildlife in my own backyard. It was like seeing the world in black and white, then suddenly seeing in full colour.
Whether It's the eagles, coyotes, owls, great blue herons, sandpipers, or pheasants on my parents Cape Breton Coast property, or the Hawks, ducks, deer, swans, herons, or turkey vultures of my home town in Brampton, Ontario. My subject matter continues to abound around me and inspire me.

View Kelly McNeil's work in the "Call of the Wild" Canadian Wilderness Art Show April/May, 2008.