Annee Kelly

VAS FVAS AGRAF CA (Chevalier Academicienne)

Education

Annee has been a professional artist for over forty years and is known mainly for her watercolours, but she paints also in Acrylics and Pastel. Multi award winning artist, tutor and mentor, Annee has conducted many workshops in both Australia and Europe, mainly France and Italy. She is an avid Plein Air painter and will tackle a wide variety of subject matter. Sound draughtsmanship and composition, together with sensitivity and a love of colour are all evident characteristics to be found in her work.

Annee Kelly is a multi-award winning artist, tutor and mentor who has been an active member of the Victorian Artists Society for many years. She was born in Alexandria, Egypt, where her natural talent and love of painting was recognised by her teachers. Annee enjoyed a very cosmopolitan childhood and teenage years with the many Europeans living in Egypt and was speaking French at both school and home.

Annee migrated to Australia at the age of 19 and undertook tertiary education, obtaining her Secondary Teacher’s Training Certificate and a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Monash University. Teaching languages at secondary schools soon followed. She however resigned from her role as a language teacher to concentrate on family life. Once her youngest daughter commenced primary school she was once again able to follow her passion for art, painting full time in oils, gouache, and pastels.

On discovering watercolour, Annee was a convert to this beautiful medium. She turned to tutors to develop her skills and attended workshops with the many great watercolour artists we have in Australia. She was soon exhibiting her work in renowned galleries, and receiving countless awards and commendations along the way.

'Change in the weather, Sandringham', watercolour on Saunders paper

Hilltop Village, South of France, watercolour on Arches paper

Annee is mainly a landscape painter and has a profound love of the natural world. She is an avid outdoor painter, where the feelings aroused by the surrounding environment are the most intense. Her love of drawing however also inspires her to paint manmade structures, such as buildings or boats. Additionally, she enjoys painting figurative works which tell a story. She finds the Australian landscape with its beauty and diversity very inspiring and complements this with many excursions overseas. She has conducted 12 European workshops and her next tour is scheduled in September, where she will be travelling to teach in the South West of France.

Annee has been active in many of the Victorian art societies including the Watercolour Society of Victoria, the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors and the Sherbrooke Art Society. She was made a Fellow of both the VAS and the Australian Guild of Realist Artists. Internationally Annee has been recognised by a panel of Jurors being made “Chevalier Academicienne”, loosely translated as Master Watercolourist of the prestigious France Artistique Association.

'Al Fresco Lunch, Collins Street', watercolour on Saunders paper

Annee paints in a realist / impressionist style and continues to push her own artistic boundaries and is currently doing watercolours and acrylics on large canvases enabling her to paint much more boldly. She has also turned to social commentary in her art – particularly the indiscriminate destruction of our native flora by developers.

“Painting is an integral part of my life and a wonderful journey. I love painting on location feeling at one with nature. However sound draftsmanship and understanding of the concepts of composition and design, tonal range and pleasing colours, are paramount concerns of mine. I am also captivated by the effect that light can have on a particular subject and the way it transforms it from ordinary to magical. I constantly seek to communicate these feelings through painting, in the realisation that our world is a truly beautiful and precious place. The challenging, capricious and fluid nature of watercolour remains my main mode of expression and I am constantly seeking improvement, chasing the elusive masterpiece.”

'Glimpse of the City, Melbourne', watercolour on Arches paper

Career Highlights

2021 - Made Chevalier Academicienne of the France Artistique Association (CA)
2017 - Made Fellow of the Victorian Artists Society (FVAS)
2017 - Kath Ballard Award-Art of Excellence Exhibition, AGRA
2014 - Made Fellow of the Guild of Realist Artists (AGRAF)
2011 - First Prize, MSWPS, the Annie Davison Award
2009 - Greek Government acquired a watercolour of Annee's for it's permanent collection at the National Gallery at Heraklion, capital of Crete.
1999 - Elected Signatory Member, Victorian Artists Society, for her contribution and services to the Arts.
1993 - Invited to join La Societe des Aquarellistes du Canada at Highwater, Quebec.
“Hilltop Village, South of France" selected to represent Australia, Fabriano In Aquarello - International Watercolour Symposium Italy, and extended exhibition in Texas, USA in 2024
"The Yarra at Warrandyte” selected for inclusion in the Australian Watercolour Muster 2021 online exhibition and shortlisted as one of the 32 Best to be exhibited at the Old Court House Gallery in Cairns and the International Watercolour Exhibition in Fabriano and Bologna, Italy in 2022
Other overseas Exhibitions include - People's Republic of China 1989 and 1991, Montreal, Canada 1993, London's Mall Gallery, Pall Mall, UK 1996, Biennale de Poesia, Alessandria, Italy, Athens Greece 2010, Athens Samothrace, Greece 2011.
Invited to participate in the Art of Excellence Award Exhibition at the Australian Guild of Realist Artists Galleries in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2017, 2018
Selected to exhibit at the prestigious Alice Bale Award Exhibition in 1993,1994 and all the ensuing years until 2015
Invited to be Guest Artist in many Art Shows, the latest of which was the Bayside Art Show in 2017
Participated in a European travelling Exhibition "Imago Mundi, Looking Down Under, Contemporary Artists from Australia" in 2015
Finalist in the VAS Mavis Little Exhibition in 2017.
Published in '50 Australian Artists' Vol 1