A Princess of Mars 2016

Ken Kelly’s painting, A Princess of Mars, is pure pulp fantasy rendered with juicy brushstrokes and a palette that’s all heat and otherworldly glow. Look how Kelly builds the scene. It’s less about precision and more about conveying a visceral sense of adventure. The texture is key here – thick, impasto brushwork brings a tactile quality to the Martian landscape and the figures. See the way he models the muscles of the hero? It's all about the exaggeration, the energy of the line. The colours are bold, leaning into those reds and oranges, to create a sense of drama and a kind of raw, untamed energy. Even the rendering of the figures is process oriented, a flurry of marks depicting details like the woman's jewelry. Kelly reminds me of Frank Frazetta, in the way he prioritizes dynamic composition and raw, expressive mark-making over strict realism. In art, like in life, sometimes it’s the imperfections, the messy parts, that make things interesting.