MOUNT VERNON — The free-hand painting of Dotty Kelley has to be the work of a natural artist. She said she doesn’t know whether or not she’s a natural artist — she just paints.
Kelley started painting when she and her husband lived in Connecticut. Watching the television artist Donna DuBury, Kelley said she felt she, too, could paint. Challenged by her husband, she told him to buy the paints. Then she just started painting.
The couple recently moved to Mount Vernon to be near their children and eight grandchildren. Thursday afternoon, Kelley was at The Living Center to paint plastic eggs for residents. Picking up an egg, she dipped a small brush into the paint and drew flowers free hand — quickly and exquisitely.
Each egg was painted with a different flower, in different colors and sizes. Kelley paints quickly, simply drawing the brush into gracefull figures of many kinds of flowers. She has had training she said; in two different schools, each of which lasted two days. But those lessons didn’t stick, so she went back to the painting she does best.
Kelley initially didn’t believe in using patterns to lay out a painting, but lately she has been using them more often.
“Patterns are good,” she said, without elaborating.
Although she paints mostly as a hobby, Kelley does sell her paintings in other forms, as well as plastic eggs. A body of work is on display at the Flea Market store on East Gambier Street. Other paintings can be seen in the Pink Cupcake bake shop on South Main Street; the shop is owned by her daughter. Other works are available at a shop near their home in Connecticut.
Teaching is an extension of her hobby. Teaching for seniors’ groups and library groups is a satisfaction she said she has received from painting. A form of inspiration for her is teaching at Concepts for Living, a special-needs adult group.
A member of the Mount Vernon Art League, Kelley is not without humor, as a painting she made indicates. The famous one-eared Dutch painter, Vincent VanGogh, once painted his own portrait. Kelley has painted her portrait, too. Sweeping off the cover of the painting, the self portrait is revealed: Bugs Bunny, with two big ears.
