Author Archives: NormanKelley

In college, my roommate, Gary, was the often reluctant but always willing subject of my homework assignments for the watercolor and oil painting courses I took.  There is no better example of this than the following oil painting:  Gary is saying, "C’mon, Kelley!  Let’s get this over with!"  I think his expression tells us he is impatient. What we don’t see is his brand-new Ford 500 Galaxie XL  two-door  hardtop, in white, with a silver-beige leather interior,  waiting for him outside our apartment!

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One day, on Oahu, my friend took me on a painting excursion along the back roads of Haleiwa, near his home.  The sun, almost at noonday, illuminated the Miss Manila Bouganvillas as if they were electrified. When I painted the scene very small, everything looked good, but when I tried a larger painting, something seemed missing.  "Aha!"  I thought, "the painting needs a center of human interest."  Suddenly, a memory of our dog, Momoko-chan, and her nine puppies came to mind. ‘Surely Momo-chan would like to be in a painting,’ I thought, so I painted her, sitting next to an imaginary little girl–maybe like my wife when she was a child–watching Momo-chan’s last little puppy play on the grass.  Of course, the little girl had to change the sign to cross out the "s," and "puppie" looked just fine to her.  And here is what the larger painting looks like. 
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Recently, I saw a print of "Girl With A Pearl Earring,"  the masterpiece oil painting by VerMeer.  I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be nice to have a painting like that?’  It would make a fine birthday present for my wife, Yoko.   She never wears pearls that big, but she used to have a parakeet on her shoulder, about the same place where a pearl would hang.  He favorite parakeet, Budgie II (Budgie the second) would fit perfectly!  I tried to capture the same sense of  mood as in VerMeer’s painting, to show the affection that existed between my wife and her B-II.

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