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With A Little Time And Encouragement-An Artist Returns To Her Dream Of Illustrating

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With A Little Time And Encouragement—

An Artist Returns To Her Dream Of Illustrating

By Shannon Hicks

Usually it is the parents who are trying to urge their children to do something that will be good for them.

In the case of the Kelly family of Newtown, it was the father and two children who finally convinced mother and wife Jackie Kelly to pursue her dream of turning her illustration work into a career. After years of gentle encouragement from her family, Jackie Kelly established Pine Hill Design earlier this year.

The business offers highly detailed pen and ink renderings of homes, businesses, favorite scenes, and in some cases, family pets. Mrs Kelly tries to stay within an eight- by ten-inch frame size, which helps when clients want to have their work framed and/or matted, but she can also be flexible with those measurements. One recent commission was for a six- by seven-inch drawing.

The drawings have a growing number of uses, including personal use and gift-giving for anniversaries, birthdays, retirement, and relocation. When the originals are reduced they can be used as logos, on business cards, brochures and stationery, notecards and holiday cards, newsletters, fliers, and advertisements.

“It’s a very personal gift for someone,” says Mrs Kelly, who has lived in Newtown with her husband, Joe, for the last 11 years –– the longest stretch of time she has ever lived in one house.

“I specialize in the pen and ink drawings, but sometimes people want a splash of color, which isn’t a problem,” Mrs Kelly said recently. “It just adds a different dimension to the work.”

Mrs Kelly says she has always had an interest in houses. She can remember redecorating an old painted metal dollhouse she had as a child, and also climbing onto the roof of her outdoor playhouse to help her father hammer on new shingles.

“I’ve often had dreams of houses,” she shared. “I’ve lived in many different homes and countries, having moved 20 times in as many years. I suppose the many relocations have served to sharpen my appreciation of the place we call home.”

Mrs Kelly has always been interested in art. In addition to helping him work on her playhouse, she would watch her father as he worked on drawing or sculpting.

“He was a jeweler by trade, so I think I got my artistic bent from him,” she said.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Louisiana State University, Mrs Kelly did “a few odds and ends. Anything you do is not a wasted experience. It all goes into the bucket and gets used eventually.”

She took paste-up and layout courses “years ago, when everything had to be absolutely lined up perfectly by hand. There was no room for mistakes.” Once her children were born, Mrs Kelly’s time was devoted to her children so her illustration work was put on the back burner, but only temporarily.

It has been during recent years that husband Joe and the grown Kelly children, Krys and Rick, have strongly encouraged Jackie to get back into her pen and ink work.

Mrs Kelly works from photographs, sometimes provided by her clients but more commonly from shots she takes. Families have contacted her to do drawings of homes that have been sold out of the family, or parents have her do drawings of the family home that their children can then hold on to.

“Homes offer unique and special memories,” she explained.

The amount of time it takes for a house portrait to be done varies with the amount of detail a client is looking for.

“A simple structure is going to go a little faster than a more complicated one, but a lot of hours go into every piece,” she said. “I include a great amount of detail in each piece and must be thoroughly satisfied with the final result before it is presented to a client.”

The amount of detail also dictates to some extent the price of the work, but prospective clients should be pleasantly surprised to learn how reasonable Mrs Kelly’s fees are.

Happy Clients

As a gift, Dina DiMartino once had a pen and ink drawing given to her of the home she and her husband Edward lived in when they lived in New Jersey. Mrs DiMartino’s father has a growing collection of similar drawings depicting homes he and his family have lived in, and when Dina and Edward bought a home in the Newtown neighborhood of Taunton Estates, they decided to continue the tradition of having drawings of their homes.

Mrs DiMartino wanted to surprise her husband with a drawing of their new home, so she contacted Mrs Kelly.

“I’ve seen a lot of pen and ink artists’ work, and the detail in her work is just incredible,” Mrs DiMartino said this week. “Her work is just phenomenal.”

Mrs DiMartino met with Mrs Kelly to arrange to have a drawing done with which she would surprise her husband. While looking through Mrs Kelly’s impressive portfolio, Mrs DiMartino was able to describe what she was looking for.

“When I sat down with [Jackie] she gave me different options –– how the house would look best, the different things she could add into the picture,” Mrs DiMartino said. “She was working on two other projects at the time, but she gave me updates while she was working on my drawing.

“We haven’t had the house landscaped yet, so I told her to landscape it with her work and she did a great job.” Mrs Kelly added shrubs and other greenery, following Mrs DiMartino’s suggestions.

“Now I can see what my house is going to look like!” Mrs DiMartino laughed.

“Now this isn’t to say that I didn’t like the work for my previous house, but the details in Jackie’s… it’s such a difference. This is a piece of art that we’re going to have forever.

“She took a true artist’s approach to her work, and I felt like I was getting the best of both worlds,” Mrs DiMartino continued. “She’s a great artist who is very professional, very meticulous. My husband just loved it.”

In addition to her husband, Mrs DiMartino also shared the final drawing with builder Kim Danziger. She copied and framed the drawing of her home and presented it to Mr Danziger who, she says, “was pretty impressed, too.”

Mrs DiMartino is a real estate agent with William Pitt Real Estate.

“I had a personal interest in Jackie’s work initially, and as a real estate agent I want to use these as house-warming gifts. I like to give clients distinctive gifts. It’s a big deal, buying a new home, and I want to do this for select homes. I think it’s a really nice gift.”

She says she expects her colleagues will want to use Mrs Kelly’s talents for future clients as well.

Another local real estate agent who discovered Mrs Kelly’s work recently is John Klopfenstein, one of the owners of Curtiss & Crandon Realtors in Newtown. He hired Mrs Kelly to do a rendering of a home that was still being built. Her finished drawing resulted in the house being sold to a couple in Texas before the home was even finished.

“With new construction sometimes you need a three-dimensional artist’s rendition of what a house will look like,” Mr Klopfenstein said this week. “Most builders will just present you with a flat drawing, and it really is understating houses in these price ranges these days.

“I asked Jackie, after giving her photographs of a similar home, to do a pen and ink for me. She did a terrific job. It was exactly what I wanted –– she gave it character by putting in some of the roofline and some of the clapboards.

“It was enough to really make it look like a home, and the result of her work was that this house was sold based on that drawing and the strength of the information provided. The people from Texas hadn’t even seen the house,” he continued.

One group has plans to use Mrs Kelly’s work for a fundraiser. When the members of King Street Volunteer Fire Department present their annual Easter Flower Sale next month (April 17–20), the public will have the additional option of purchasing matted prints of the firehouse. Mrs Kelly did a drawing of the building, along with the company’s logo, and presented it to King Street Captain Jonathan DeJoseph, her nephew, for Christmas.

“I’m amazed at how detailed everything is,” Captain DeJoseph said. “We’re using this as a fundraiser because we think people might be interested in a small part of their community. Most of the [fire company] members are already interested in getting a copy. She did a great job.”

Clients this year have also included Danbury Senior Center and the center’s SeniorNet program, for which Mrs Kelly designed brochures; Housatonic Valley Tourism District, also based in Danbury, which hired her for graphics projects; and Bethlehem-based Wild Indigo Garden Design.

“Jackie was great,” Wild Indigo owner Jennifer Brown said via email this week. “She took a lot of time with me at the beginning to get to know what style I like and to explore the image I wanted to present with my business before she developed a logo and business card.

“She was quick and thorough and happy to rework things as I asked her to,” Ms Brown added. “I’m sure I’ll use her again.”

A quotation by the author and yoga instructor Phillip Moffitt helped reaffirm Mrs Kelly’s thoughts on the importance of homes. Found on one of her fliers is the Moffitt line, “A house is a home when is shelters the body and comforts the soul.”

 “I believe a home portrait is more than simply a piece of art,” said Jackie Kelly. “It is a lasting tribute to the home that has been a haven, a friend, and a comfort.”

Pine Hill Design can be contacted at 270-1252 or JJKelly590@aol.com.

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