"Devin's Castle (Beware of Social Media)" Painting

Michael O’Kelly : Fine Artist
Michael is an accomplished fine artist and classical guitarist starting in his early teens. His painting skills are honed by years spent with infamous British art forger Tom Keating, who trained Michael in Renaissance and Classical techniques. Michael won full scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London. He co-founded the Omega Classical Guitar Quartet, which recorded and toured on three Continents. In 1973 Michael received a full Post Graduate scholarship to the University of Mexico, Mexico City, to study Ethnomusicology and Anthropology and subsequently made important collections of ethnographic art for the British Museum and other European Museums.

“It was a golden age,” he recalls his travels throughout Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, and the Amazon. “It thrilled and inspired me.” The vibrancy and originality of Latin American art made a powerful impression on the young artist. “It changed how I saw color.”

While there, Michael worked with Maestro Rufino Tamayo (for three years). He co-produced the Tamayo retrospective Quincentennial exhibitions at the Hermitage (St. Petersburg), Plastic Arts Museum in Moscow and the Edvard Munch Museum in Oslo. Michael’s personal collection of historical Mexican dance masks, his fine art, paintings, drawings and photography toured in the UK, Europe and the US in over 40 Museums and Fine Art Galleries, including, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Central Colon in Madrid (Spain). Museums in London, Brighton, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham