I remember walking through the exhibit feeling so connected to the work, so inspired by both Diebenkorn and Matisse’s nudes… and then I walked into the last room and found the Ocean Park paintings. So I hopped in the car, and made the trip solo. Many years back, the Baltimore Museum of Art did a retrospective of his work alongside Matisse. I was immediately drawn to his work, both his figurative work and especially his Ocean Park series. In my early career I would say that the one artist that really spoke to me was Richard Diebenkorn. When I’ve done something that I haven’t done before, when I feel I’m breaking ground on a painting, when I’m letting the painting talk back to me in a way…Īre there any particular artists who have inspired you? You paint whether you feel inspired or not, and more often than not it ends up being the act of painting that inspires me most. There is no such thing as waiting for inspiration to start work. I do like to take a lot of photos if something catches my eye- it’s better to try and capture it in that moment so you have reference to return to, and try to remember what it was about it that struck you. It’s the natural landscape, or the color of anything and everything. It’s the way the light hits something and produces a beautiful shadow, it’s the sky's never-ending and constantly-changing beauty. I don’t generally go out and seek to be inspired. I think I'm like most creatives - we look and find inspiration everywhere in our daily lives. I actually love all of that, and every painting provides a new problem to solve. Every painting is an opportunity to learn what works, what doesn’t, how it makes you feel, what you like and what you don’t. And congratulations to all the artists that are able to do that, but I find that you need to make some duds in between. I think for artists that are publicly putting themselves and their work out there on a regular basis, there can be constant pressure (notably internally) to show up and produce beautiful work day after day.

It’s where you can be free to play, to explore, to start without the pressure of trying to finish something or trying it make it great in some way. What's your favorite part of the process? I have found if I work this way, one usually takes the lead and then informs the others. You ultimately infuse each one with that life force energy that day. I might do a few studies before I dive in, but for the most part I just start working on all of them at once, going back to each one to progress them further. All the paper has to be prepped and taped, and then I comb through hundreds of poses and select the ones that stand out. So I had about 8-10 pieces going at the same time. As an example, my latest figurative series was on paper. If I’m working on a figurative series it takes a lot of time, thought, and planning. I don’t have a pre-meditated palette, I just work. I often like to grasp onto a concept and work in a series that explores that concept and just see where it goes. Capturing moments of both grit and beauty.Ĭan you describe your creative process? How does it go from the start to finish?Īt this point in my career, I’m always working, always painting and just trying to find my way through the piece. Gestural, expressive, often bold, intuitive. I never went back to fashion and began my pursuit toward creativity. I took my first painting class at a small atelier in New York while I was trying to figure out my next steps and that is when the spark was lit. I spent thirteen years in a corporate job and when my oldest son went to kindergarten I decided I had enough and quit.

After school I moved to New York City, lived there for many years, and then slowly we made our way to Westchester and now, Westport, Connecticut. It’s about forty minutes south of Buffalo. I’m from a very small town with one traffic light - Holland, New York. Where are you from originally and where are you located now? During our interview, we took a look inside Kelly's light, high-ceilinged workspace (*swoon*), and chatted with her about her background in fashion, how she developed her style, and the ins and outs of her creative process. Read on to learn more about Kelly and to see inside her studio, or watch the live tour and Q&A at the bottom of the page! Our Interview with Kelly Rossetti She maintains two distinct bodies of work - abstract and figurative - which are intrinsically linked in their colorful, loose, and expressive qualities. Kelly Rossetti is an abstract artist based in Westport, Connecticut.

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