Michael Kelly artist sketchbooks

PXA 7685

fonds

1985-2016

Graphic Materials, Drawings, Ephemera

9675538

65 sketchbooks (approximately 3,250 drawings) - pencil, pen, ink and watercolour

Michael Kelly (b. 1956) is an Australian artist. He began these sketchbooks in his second year of studies at East Sydney Technical College (now National Art School) and graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1987. He has held 14 solo exhibitions and exhibited in numerous group exhibitions in Australia and overseas. His work is held in private and public collections. He was the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner foundation Grant in 2004 and has had residencies in Bundanoon NSW, Dunmoochin Victoria and at Clayton Utz in Sydney.

Reference:
"About," Michael Kelly Art. Accessed 19 October 2023. https://www.michaelkellyart.com/about
Library correspondence file

65 artist sketchbooks containing notes, rough sketches, drawings, watercolours and ephemera including tickets, brochures and travel memorabilia. Works depict everyday life, places, people, memories, dreams and travels. Also included are drawings and notes about local and international exhibitions, paintings and sculptures in galleries, materials, paint colours or drawing surfaces, classes taught, lectures attended, artists’ quotes and poems. Artistic responses to themes of mental health and transient living or homelessness emerge throughout the sketchbooks, including depictions of communities at hostels and food services such as Wayside Chapel, Matthew Talbot and Rough Edges Darlinghurst.

Hardcover sketchbooks relating to student years, 1985-1990
Boxes 1-2
1-2. Sketchbooks relating to student years at East Sydney Technical College and living in Newtown, February 1985-December 1985
3-6. Scrapbooks relating to student years at the Victorian College of the Arts and living in St Kilda, February 1986-April 1988

Boxes 3-4
7-9. Sketchbooks relating to development as an artist and first solo and group exhibitions while living in Hotham St, Balaclava, Victoria, as well as drawings and watercolours done on visits to Sydney and the Central Coast, NSW and overseas in Los Angeles, April 1988-November 1989.
10-11. Sketchbooks relating to exhibitions visited during first trip overseas in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., London, Amsterdam and Paris, November 1989-January 1990

Hardcover sketchbooks relating to Footscray years, 1990-1998
Boxes 5-7
12-15. Sketchbooks of life drawings and still life drawings done on return to Melbourne whilst studying drawing at Footscray TAFE college and teaching at another TAFE College in the northern suburbs, March 1990-January 1993
16-19. Sketchbooks of preliminary and working drawings done whilst teaching in Footscray, Melbourne in Footscray Park and around the Maribyrnon River, January 1993-December 1998

Hardcover sketchbooks relating to travel in Europe and Sydney, January 1999-April 1999
Box 8
20-21. Sketchbooks of landscape drawings at mother's home in Central Coast and overseas in London, Dublin and Northern Europe, January 1999-April 1999

Hardcover sketchbooks relating to Dunmoochin, Melbourne, May 1999-August 2003
Boxes 9-10
22-23. Sketchbooks relating to time as artist in residence at Dunmoochin, Melbourne and trips to Tamworth, NSW and Sydney, May 1999-August 2003

Hardcover sketchbooks relating period in Melbourne and Sydney, August 2003-2012
24. Sketchbooks relating to time in Melbourne and Sydney, August 2003-May 2004
25-28. Sketchbooks relating to Sydney and surrounds, including a trip to Canberra and move to a new studio and residency in Bundanoon, 2004-2012

Large and assorted sketchbooks, 2004-2016
Boxes 11-12
1-7. Spiral bound and other soft cover sketchbooks relating to student years at East Sydney Technical College and Victorian College of the Arts, trips to Melbourne and Geelong in Victoria, Sydney including Sydney Harbour, the Zoo, Newtown and surrounding areas, Kincumber, Central Coast, Armidale and Tamworth NSW, April 1985-1990. Includes drawings of fellow students, friends and family, art school excursions to Castle Mountain near St Albans, NSW, preliminary drawings and studies for paintings, life drawings

Medium sized sketchbooks
Boxes 13
1. Pencil drawings in Sydney while student at St George TAFE, January 1984-January 1985
2-4. Sketches in various media whilst a student at the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne.
5. Pen and ink sketches done in New York City of people experiencing homelessness, street views and some pencil sketches and drawings used for etchings later, 1989-1990

Box 14
6. Drawings in various media done in Melbourne, landscapes, people, life drawing, still life, taxis, 1992-1994
7. Drawings of people, street scenes etc. in pencil, pen and ink, 2002-2004
8-11. Drawings in various media of people, streetscapes, people experiencing homelessness, food vans and people from drop-in centres like Rough Edges in Sydney, 2005-2011
12-16. Drawings in various media of people, streetscapes, studies for paintings, working drawings, everyday sketches and drawings of mother from Sydney and Italy, 2009-2017

Box 15
Small sketchbooks
1-3. Student sketchbooks mainly people, landscapes, street sketches and people on buses and trains in Melbourne, May 1986-1989
4-8. Sketches in pen, ink and pencil of people from a taxi and outside venues, dogs of friends and sketches of various painting subjects and related to teaching in Melbourne, 1992-1994
9. Pen and ink, pencil, charcoal and wash sketches of people and landscapes in Melbourne, 1997
10-11. Pencil drawings and sketches from a visit to Ireland, London, Lille, Paris, Rotterdam and galleries in Holland and Germany, February 1999-March 1999
12. Sketches done mostly of people while teaching at a summer school in Toowoomba and later from a visit to Sydney, December 1999
13-14. Pencil sketches of people mostly from Rough Edges, Sydney, 2009-2010

Box 16
Soft cover sketchbooks
1-13. Soft cover sketchbooks of drawings in pencil and rough sketches of people at Rough Edges, Darlinghurst and around Sydney city and sketches done in Italy, June 2007-2019

Box 17
Large hardcover sketchbook of scenes of Sydney in watercolour, many used as preliminary drawings and studies for later oil paintings, 2004-2016

In copyright:
Copyright holder:: Michael Kelly
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy Michael Kelly

Based on listing supplied by the artist

Detailed contents list supplied by artist is located in Box 1