In his painting as in his life, Daniel Kelly is quick, exuberant and inventive. An American, he grew up valuing individualism, originality and expression. Twenty years ago, already a Kyoto resident, he loved to paint in the country, in rain, fog, snow. "The heart of things," he explained. As he painted, farmers and fishermen approached and watched. From them he learned to speak his "plain Japanese." Some of his pictures were soft and misty, some moonlit, some glowing with the colors of sunrise or sunset. Each bore his stamp. "I am a painter. Watercolor. Immediate," he said. "Color is the really attractive thing to me. What happens in nature gets me out there."
Daniel KellyNow, he says, he has rediscovered himself as an "objects-related person." His paintings have changed. "Somewhere along the way, landscape no longer fulfilled me. Now I paint single objects or groups of objects. Heads, round, voluminous, wavy things. Balls, bowls, round fat things. The insides of painted bowls, so I get a picture within a picture." Over the years he has made lanterns, too, a theme.
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