A PLACE IN THE SUN FOR PERCY

Date Posted: 12th April 2018

Everything Kelly is disappearing like crazy. in anticipation of #countryfile which goes out on BBC1 on Sunday.  The Percy Kelly Trails are now available again with some revisions and  The Man who couldn't stop Drawing - the extraordinary story of his life - is being reprinted right now. @percykellyart. You can place a pre-publication order on the merchandise page. It will take a few weeks as the book is case bound. This deals with his life story whereas Line of Beauty (also available now after a second reprint) which was published for the retrospective is about the development of his work. It contains interesting memoirs from people who knew him and essays from art critics as well as lots of beautiful images.

The auction of some of his letters at Mitchells Auction House in Cockermouth last week produced some strong competition and high prices. These were PK's letters to Bill Hamilton, Design Manager in the sixties at Sekers Silk Mills in Whitehaven. It would be true to say that it was Bill who discovered PK as an artist and gave him the very first showing of his work in his sitting room in 1965. Pk was 46. Bill and Kitty Hamilton befriended PK  from then on and when PK moved away from Cumberland with his new wife Christine, they would stay with the Hamiltons when they came back to visit friends.

Sadly Pk's few years in the limelight were soon over. In 1969, after only 3 exhibitions - Rosehill Theatre, Sekers' London showroom and the Fermoy Gallery in Kings Lynn - he decided there would be no more. He hated it. That was not his reason for painting and drawing.

Now, 25 years after his death, he is enjoyingthe sort of recognition he hoped he would get after his demise.   Short term wealth and admiration were anathema to him even though it meant an uncomfortable existence. He was playing the long game -  for immortality.  The first exhibition a year after his death in 1993 was a sell out and all subsequent exhibitions have been and he has gradually made an indelible mark by the sheer honsty and beauty of his work.

But now he has won his place in the sun.