If something interests Steve Kellison, he turns it into art.
For his “Lost Vincent” series, Kellison was inspired by “The Painter on the Road to Tarascon,” a Vincent van Gogh work destroyed in World War II.
The image of a painter on his way to work embedded itself in Kellison’s imagination and sparked a series of drawings and paintings. In each, the central image is recognizable but captured in various styles and mediums—some in charcoal and pastel on paper, some in oil and pigment stick on canvas. Some are abstract, others more faithful to the original.
“When I come across an image that piques my interest, I often riff on that,” says Kellison, a longtime Davis resident now living in Midtown. “I get interested in a particular idea and try my hand at it.”
Kellison’s creative eye developed early with coloring books and Peanuts comics. He took three art classes in high school and majored in art at Sierra College.
Because he wanted to “stay with art but do something to actually pay my rent,” Kellison worked in graphic design. His father owned a fiberglass manufacturing business and produced his own catalogs, which Kellison worked on to “learn everything from A to Z” about graphic design.
Freelance jobs led to forming a small ad agency in Fair Oaks, then a boutique design studio. A move to San Francisco got Kellison involved with a publishing company, where he worked as an art director on projects for national parks and theme parks. Along came licenses with Disney, Looney Tunes and Sesame Place.
Kellison and his wife moved to Davis to raise their two daughters while he continued to work for the publishing company from home. When the recession caused the job to end, he decided to fulfill his desire to paint full-time into retirement.
“It was a bit of a struggle,” Kellison says. “You don’t realize how much you need to focus on the business side of it—it’s almost a thing unto itself. Art is also a super competitive kind of business. The opportunity to show your work and sell is much more limited. Just about every business out there needs some form of graphic design, but that’s not true of the creative painting world.”
Kellison found success in the competitive marketplace, exhibiting at Blue Line Arts in Roseville, Pence Gallery in Davis, Sacramento Fine Arts Center, Elk Grove Fine Arts Center and others. His work shows at the State Fair and he opens his home studio for Verge Center for the Art’s annual Sac Open Studios.
Kellison’s practice is based in drawing. He lists graphite, pastel and charcoal as favorite drawing tools because they allow him to “really get in there with your fingers.” He has sketchpads that he calls “starting points” for his paintings.
He loves to experiment with all kinds of painting techniques and mediums, including drip, splatter, impasto, collage, airbrush and his favorite, oil.
“It’s beautiful stuff but has its own kind of chemistry,” Kellison says. “It’s taken me a long time to figure out how to best use it. What can it do? Let me try it this way, that way. You can use oil paint in so many different ways.”
For information, visit stevekellison.com.
Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
