International artist Ben Kelly features at Art Fair 2014

Internationally renowned painter, Ben Kelly, is taking part in this year’s Art Fair 2014, selling paintings to help raise money for East Cheshire Hospice. The artist, who lives in Kerridge near Macclesfield, is one of many accomplished painters taking part in this unique art event, taking place at Macclesfield Old Town Hall from Friday 26 September to Saturday 4 October 2014.

Ben Kelly was born in Manchester and finished his training at Central St Martins in London. His work has been described as following in the footsteps of Lowry, celebrating the everydayness of life, with people carrying out their daily rituals and routines without wishing or needing to be noticed. His paintings have a recognisable figurative style, with strong shards of light illuminating the story being played out on canvas.

“I like to play with the imagination, taking an ordinary scene – a park perhaps, or a shoreline – and incorporating characters I’ve imagined or who come from other narratives, animals and people I’ve come across on my travels,” says Kelly. “I like to inject humour or a sense of the ethereal. Quite a few of my recent paintings include dogs wearing hats for instance, or figures that have a ghostly quality. I like to play with abstraction and the idea of something being not quite what it seems.”

Kelly does not shy away from tackling darker themes too, as a recent exhibition entitled ‘Looters and Other Stories’ proves – the collection focused on the looting which took place in the Manchester street riots of 2011.

In 2006, Ben Kelly won the Football in the Arts Prize, then the second largest arts prize in the UK. Only one other painter has won the prize: L S Lowry in 1968 for his painting, ‘Going to the Match’. He then became artist in residence at Manchester City Football Club, providing a body of work that was nationally acclaimed. Kelly has also exhibited at the Lowry Centre in Salford, the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool and The National Football Museum when it was in Preston. Closer to home, he had a sell-out exhibition at The Gateway Gallery in Macclesfield and has his first solo-show at Clarke Art in Hale this autumn.

Although busy painting for this next show, Kelly is hoping to find time to paint something new for the Art Fair in September. East Cheshire Hospice is a charity he is keen to support.

Kelly says: “East Cheshire Hospice is a really important local charity and I know it has to raise thousands of pounds every month just to keep its doors open. The work they do in the community is invaluable, and I hope as many people as possible will come along to the Art Fair and support this fantastic cause.”

Christiane Van Doorn is helping to coordinate Art Fair 2014 and says: “We’re delighted Ben is able to be part of this year’s show, along with so many other talented and brilliant artists. The standard is really very high and with 30% of every artwork sold going directly to East Cheshire Hospice we’re confident that with the support of our sponsors and the visiting public we will raise lots of funds for this important charity.”

For further information about Art Fair 2014, and to find out more about a special ‘Meet the Artist’ event, please visit www.theartofcaring.org.uk