Percy Kelly: Off The Wall at Theatre by the Lake Keswick

DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW

Reviewed by Jo Hardy

The new exhibition at Theatre by the Lake is of work by local artist Percy Kelly who was born in Workington in 1918 and lived in Cumbria until 1973, this exhibition brings together pieces rescued from his home in Norfolk after his death.

Percy Kelly lived a reclusive life, people living around him would have no idea that he was such an accomplished artist, always refusing to sell any of his work even though he was approached by some very prestigious art houses and was living a very frugal life. There is a story that the cockerel featured on all the advertising for this exhibition was actually painted as a gift for a friend but he asked for it back, l don’t think he could bear to be parted from it.

There are a lot of the charcoal landscapes that Percy Kelly is well known for, these are not the usual landscapes of Cumbrian fells and lakes that we see from a lot of artists, they are scenes from small west Cumbrian towns like Arlecdon and Cockermouth, none of them were titled and there has been a lot of detective work done to name them, not all of them have been recognised yet. These scenes have a stark stillness to them I could feel myself really slowing down when I looked at them and got a sense of stepping into the artist’s private life.

In striking contrast the exhibition also includes a selection of bright bold, fish, animals and plants produced while he was a student at Carlisle College of art, these have a more modern look and could almost belong to another artist but the strong straight lines that were a big part of the landscapes can still be seen.

Knowing how the artist always wanted to keep these pictures close to him it is a privilege to view what was for so many years a private collection, thank you to Chris Wadsworth for bringing this wonderful art to the public.

The Percy Kelly: Off the Wall exhibition is at Theatre by the Lake from 25th Oct – 15th Oct on the mezzanine and circle levels of the theatre it is free to view whenever the theatre is open.

All art work is for sale with proceeds being donated to Theatre by the Lake to support their creative and community activities.

There are also some talks to support this exhibition 31st Oct and 14th Nov at 2pm Sal and Tony Calvin who helped curate the show will be available to give more information about the artist.

4th Nov and 11th Nov at 2pm Robert Adam from Graal Press in Edinburgh will be available to talk about Kelly’s etching process.

theatrebythelake.com

Rating: 5/5

Picture Rachel Kearns