When characterizing Kelly's landscape painting one is reminded of the phrase used by one critic to describe the great French artist Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875): he paints with the eye of a Realist, but the heart of a Romantic. Because there is an unmistakable air of sensuousness in Kelly's work - a gleam of colour, a clammy dampness, a smell of evening, a coldness, a feeling of anticipation or sometimes even nostalgia - as if something drew him to the scene and urged him to paint. As he himself says: 'I paint like a conductor conducting his orchestra hitting certain notes and keys - sometimes it's a frenzy like state.' "

A strong believer in solid draughtsmanship, Kelly paints in a Realist (or Pre-Impressionist) sty...