Birds of a Feather

Written By: - NONE - | Issue: 2018/08 - August

Birds of a feather flock together at Around Back at Rocky’s Place, often to get first dibs on the new arrivals of folk artist Kelley Bentley Ash. 

Kelly’s paintings are whimsy at its best.  Whether you are outfitting a room for children or one for adults, her paintings are just the ticket to make you smile…they are not only ageless, but also timeless.  Kelley paints with acrylics, pastels, and crayon and uses only vintage materials, such as old Southern quilts, Grit newspapers, and recycled burlap coffee sacks, in her mixed media pieces. 

Rocky’s Place saw the fun and the allure of her work over three years ago when the gallery started carrying her paintings.  She is a best-selling artist for the gallery, and her work has recently taken on notoriety in other venues.  Camper World snatched up her painting, for their corporate office, of “Queen of the Double Wide Trailer,” which features her Party Bird with a camper.  Her paintings have been spotted in Paula Deen’s Magazine adorning the walls in featured articles, and HGTV is currently working with the artist on ways to incorporate her work with what they do best…decorate!  Also, a children’s book, chocked full of only her paintings as illustrations, is in the works; featured on the cover of the book will be her painting of a chick on a vintage bicycle with the title, “If you have ice cream and a dream, you have everything.”

Is her work for the birds?  Absolutely!  Whether her pieces are party birds, birds on parade, hot chicks, wearing hats, doing the hokey-pokey, etc., they are must-haves to liven up any room or space.  Although her signature is the “Party Bird,” she also paints other subjects as well.  Her “Party Dogs” and “Party Horses” also have a huge following.  Coupled with her animated animals and backgrounds of Seuss-like trees and sidewalks, are her words of wisdom to live by and for, “Enjoy the little things for one day you may realize they were the big things.”

Kelley Bentley Ash is a Southern girl, through and through, and her art reflects such themes.  Her church pieces carry the lyrics from gospels like “I’ll Fly Away” and “Amazing Grace.”  Her “Happy Appalachia” celebrates the North Georgia mountains.   Her husband Kelley, an architect; and their three children, live in a modern farmhouse, “modern” meaning the outside skeleton is new material, but the inside is retro and vintage, just like the colors and materials used to create her art pieces. 

Their farm is complete with a hen house, and hence, her piece with the fox, entitled “Chicken Eater,” reflects her daily trials and tribulations of living on a farm.  But the very best way to describe this artist is to share her own reflections as worded on her painting “Sweet Gravy,” “I love a Southern accent, I love an old friend, I love the smell of tea olive and the taste of peach tea, I love my smokin’ hot husband and my sweet kids, I love long hot days and early fall mornings, I love a long walk and a Moon Pie, I love slow talkers and quick thinkers, slow dancing and fast horses, but most of all I love God, this is my Sweet Gravy, what’s yours?”

Around Back at Rocky’s Place is located at 3631 Highway 53 East in

Dawsonville, Georgia.