Redwood City artist Sandra Keely’s paint carvings are striking from across a room, but to really appreciate them, get up close. Better yet, touch them.
To fully experience the work, “you need to see and feel them,” as Keely put it on her website. To create these vivid pieces, she applies layer upon layer of acrylic paint – sometimes up to 100 – in a variety of colors to birch wood panels, then carves out designs, revealing a dazzling multitude of hues underneath.
The paint carvings are the subject of her first solo gallery show, “Excavated Color,” at M Stark Gallery in Half Moon Bay through July 19.
Always keen on learning new skills, she happened upon carving in acrylics somewhat accidentally while she was trying out lino printing. When adding some of the acrylic paint she used for murals to her crumbling block of practice rubber to help stabilize it, she found she enjoyed using the cutting tool directly on the acrylic — and, after playing around with layers, she loved the surprising colors and textures that resulted.
“You start carving into it and you see colors that you had put in there that are kind of forgotten. And so as you go through it, you can excavate, basically, and find the colors that you put down,” she said. She experiments with the colors as she goes, finding delight in uncovering the “gems” along the way.
“I don’t really plan it out. I just go with what I’m feeling at the time,” she said. “If I mess up or if I cut way too far, where I see the wood, I’ll start again. I just put more paint on and it becomes something totally different.”
For the designs, she typically sketches out where and how she wants to carve, whether it be a nature scene of detailed dandelions or a more abstract pattern.
“I love doing landscapes and flowers, and I also love birds,” she said.
“Gossiping,” for example, depicts two birds on a branch excitedly chatting, while “The Muses” evokes a broader environmental scene. Some, like “And So It Began,” are cosmological in theme.
During a recent visit to her backyard studio, Keely was working on her biggest piece yet, a 48 inch by 48 inch panel with a bright blue background and an abstract pattern design. She estimated such a large piece will take 50-60 hours, since each layer needs to dry before adding the next. Because the excavation process creates a lot of scraps, she upcycles and reuses the carved-out bits in greeting cards and other projects.
Her paint carvings caught the eye of M Stark Gallery owner Marianna Stark via the directory published by Silicon Valley Open Studios.
“I was attracted to Sandra’s work because it looks completely original to me. It is an ingenious combination of fine art and craft, painting and sculpture. It reminds me of bas relief. The texture is completely seductive. I love the vibrant color,” Stark said in an email.
“Once I learned that Sandra’s professional background includes animation, I could immediately see the influence of that art form on these carved acrylic paintings, making it even more interesting to me,” she added.
About a year ago, Stark asked if she could show some of Keely’s pieces in the back room of the gallery and, after they proved quite popular, she invited Keely to hold her first solo gallery exhibition this summer.
Keely was honored by the invitation, noting she hadn’t expended much effort into marketing her artwork.
“I haven’t really put myself out there … if I did, like, the (downtown Redwood City’s) ART on the Square and stuff doesn’t sell, I just pile it in my suitcase when I go back to Ireland,” she said with a smile. “So they’re scattered all over my relatives’ homes, whether they like it or not.”
Keely’s journey from her native Ireland to Redwood City has been a long and winding one, as has her artistic path. After leaving school as a teenager, she spent some time working in the U.S. as an au pair. Then, back in Ireland in the late 1980s and in need of any work she could get, she nabbed a position as a cel painter for Sullivan Bluth Studios (Don Bluth Entertainment).
The animation studio was set up to rival Disney in making hand-drawn cartoon movie magic, and it had just moved to Dublin. Her first Bluth project was the tear-jerker “All Dogs Go To Heaven.” Loving the meticulous work, after a few months, she moved into drawing and then character animation.
When Bluth moved to Phoenix to head up Fox Animation Studios, Keely eventually followed, working on films including the now-classic musical “Anastasia.”
“I thought at that time I was going to be doing animation the rest of my life. That was my passion. I loved it,” she said.
But as the turn of the millennium neared, digital animation was on the rise and hand-drawn animation was fading. Keely, like many, was laid off.
Never daunted for long, she worked as a waitress, then briefly as a wax dresser, then a pharmacy technician. She also continued to make art, including doing decorative and mural painting, and taught animation basics.
“It was just a time to kind of try my hand at anything, see where I wanted to be, see what made me happy again,” she recalled.
She decided to go back to school to earn her BFA in museum studies and worked in museums for a while. She also started oil painting.
“I always wanted to be, like, a ‘real’ artist, you know, because I just happened upon animation. I never saw myself as a professional artist,” she said. “I took an oil painting class and (the instructor) was like, ‘You’re a natural.'”
She’s worked in portraits, still lifes and landscapes and often takes inspiration from the California coastside. Having had quite enough of Arizona heat, Keely and her partner, with whom she’d been in a long-distance relationship, settled in Redwood City in 2014 because of its convenient location and their love of the Bay Area. She was also drawn, no pun intended, to the city’s supportive artistic community.
“I thought, ‘I could live here,'” she said.
She served for four years as a member of the Redwood City Arts Commission and has been involved with the new Center for Creativity. She’s also hoping to continue her involvement with art projects with local students.
“I think it’s really important for a community to show that they’re rich in arts for younger people,” she said.
Currently, Keely happily works a day job as an office manager in San Francisco.
“If I had to rely on selling my (art)work, I think it would be really stressful,” she said. She plans to keep nourishing her creative sides in all the ways she can, looking forward to the future while also reflecting on her journey so far.
“It’s been a fun, fun art ride,” she said.
“Sandra Keely: Excavated Color” runs through July 19 at M Stark Gallery, 727 Main St., Half Moon Bay. Open Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Also open during First Friday art walks and Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays by appointment. More artist information is available at sandrakeely.com.
Instagram: @sandrakeelystudio; @mstarkgallery.
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