Kelley Ash
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. Kelley, her husband, an architect, and their three children, live together in a beautiful farmhouse on their farm. 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?”