Kelly Frank

Kelly Frank is a young British painter whose sensitive portraits capture the layered personalities of her sitters. Kelly explores portraiture through the lens of a psychologist and investigator, and her pictures of friends and family focus on their vulnerabilities. By using a wide range of mediums such as charcoal, oil pastel, acrylics, and oil paint, her paintings show a meticulous hand and forensic eye.

 

Although Frank is a young, self-taught artist, she has managed to develop her own unique and mature style. Her dry application of paint creates a velvet texture to the skin she portrays. Her psychological approach is evident when she speaks about the ideas behind her paintings, ‘people are a process in which they simultaneously reveal and hide.’ Her outlook, similar to that of an experienced counselor or therapist, is that what’s most important is that which cannot be seen. Much of her work concerns hide stories of domestic life as she seeks to peel away barriers and tell honest stories.