A Way Of Seeing’ The Art Of Ben Kelly . The Life Of A Writer

Being curious, on Thursday, 6^th June, I went to the opening of Ben Kelly’s recent exhibition: The Art Of Seeing.  As Dr Rina Arya , author of Francis Bacon: Painting In A Godless World and the editor of Contemplations Of The Spiritual In Art, writes in the foreword to the catalogue: ‘Ben Kelly’s expressive paintings are archetypally Northern.’  Indeed, they explore landmarks of Manchester and Cheshire ‘meanderings in and around landscape’, both urban and rural: football crowds and parks, shopping trips and walks in the countryside. 

A favourite of mine, Seven Trees In Wincle, records a lone guy, in harmony with nature, a 21^st Century Thoreau (my reading, maybe not Ben’s intention at all) someone disillusioned with the trappings of modern life, who has retreated to the natural world. I was also captivated by Strike A Pose: The Clean Up, an exploration of the looting of Manchester City Centre which took place in the summer, 2011.  However, whatever the subject matter of Ben’s paintings, one thing that truly struck me about the work, was the light; it is arresting.  He uses a technique referred to as ‘fracturing,’ which is a method of layering the paint. 

For me, it is this ‘fracturing’ that makes the work unique; it is Ben’s ‘Way Of Seeing’ the world, and to cultivate a unique ‘Way Of Seeing,’ is what all artists, of course I include writers here,  should aspire to.

I very much enjoyed the exhibition, nice one.  And the champagne wasn’t bad either! :-)