Bio: KELLY X
Vibrations of Color, Beauty and Glamour.

After long career as a fashion model, working for Ford and other top agencies around the world helped me develop an eye for a natural pose and the attitude that captures the spirit of a woman on canvas. My love for beauty and fashion, and my experience in such an exciting and volatile field; hopefully comes through in my paintings of beautiful and interesting women.

Throughout my artistic career I have been particularly inspired by the pin-up master such as Alberto Vargas, - master of the classic beauty, Gil Elvgren - virtuoso of pure fun and playfulness and Olivia – Mistress of mischief ;)

Of course, many other artists and works have inspired me throughout my studies and I have had the opportunity to learn from diverse teachers such as William Ward Beecher and Sumi-E master Suhaku Flag. A few of the images here have been published and others have won awards online.

I was raised in sunny southern California by progressive parents who helped me realize that there was no need to separate fun, sexiness, and intelligence. Naturally, then, my work is about empowered, take-charge women. I have tried to establish a modern day “Pin Up” who knows what she wants and feels comfortable enough to be beautiful, self-assured, and unafraid to bare it all. My creative goal is to capture their individuality, strength, sexuality, and beauty in each of my models. Most importantly, I want their personality to jump off the canvas.

My initial inspiration for each canvas is a well thought out process of purposefully planning out an adventure of energy from the model, excitement and color… each step is very important to the end result. First I start by finding a photograph or taking a photo of a model with the right attitude and spirit that I want to portray. Then I map out how the image will look best of the canvas… I sketch it out directly from the photo and then begin to block in all the bits of color I see and also want to see, nothing usually stays the same as the photo except for maybe the pose, I try to let things happen organically with the brush strokes, lines and colors. People have named me an optical painter, not linier… meaning I paint in block form, actually crudely blocking in the form and color very quickly and the with purpose of keeping the canvas fresh and full of unrefined energy. The end of the painting is really my favorite part; this is where I make sure everything is working, the lighting, and the background with the main focus of the pin-up or glamour girl. I add all kinds of lights and darks to her as well as the general piece to make it flow as much as possible. Three – six layers of varnish and mounted to board… your ready to go J))

I hope that you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

I am the painter for the 2013 Matco Tools calendar, Jurried artist in The Dirty Show for the last four years... SD Comi-con and NY Comic-con

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