MARTHA ROBBINS KELLAR

I was born in Alamogordo, NM, November 23, 1949. My family moved to Evanston, ILL., in 1955. I discovered at age 5, on a field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago, that I wanted to be an artist.

I met and married my husband Bob in 1968 while a BFA student at Murray State University in southwest Kentucky. I dropped out of college with the ambition to set the art world on fire. Instead, I set the obstetrical world on fire! I had my four darling children, Jen, Rob, Molly, and David, between 1970 and 1977. David's birth put an end to my plan to have a "practical" career. David had severe neo-natal oxygen deprivation, and required, and still requires, constant total care.

I began working as an artist again in 1979, really more as comic relief from my daily life, rather than with any real ambition to be a good artist. But I worked hard when I could, took workshops and classes, and by 1985 had won my first national award (for a painting of my husband). I have won other national awards, have displayed my work at the National Arts Club and the Salmagundi Club in Manhattan. I have displayed at other national and regional shows. I've had a museum show of my work. My paintings have been published in books and art magazines. I've been privileged to hang my work in a number of terrific galleries over the years.

As I grow older, I find that I much prefer to paint smaller works than in the past; I have too many interruptions to painting to support large numbers of larger works. Therefore, I hope the Daily Paintworks venue will give me impetus to paint small and paint every day I can! Thanks for reading this little bio, and I hope you have a lovely day!