Kelly Sullivan

Fine Art Painter

Kelly Sullivan is an award-winning artist and founder of FingerSmears™, her signature method of collaborative art. Born and raised in Clinton Township, New Jersey, Sullivan knew she would be an artist when she was five years old, the year her grandmother surrounded her with paint and repeated simple but encouraging words: “Don’t be shy with the paint,” a refrain that stuck.

Largely self-taught, Sullivan sold her first artworks (pencil and pastel drawings) in the mid 1980’s. Her interest turned toward musical portraiture and led her to paint many of her icons, including Bruce Springsteen, John Lee Hooker, BB King, and many more. Her musical works graced the walls of BB Kings Blues Club in New York for years, and showed in the Ambassador Gallery in Soho along side works by Jerry Garcia, Tico Torres, and Ronnie Wood.

Sullivan produced her first multi-artist “Montage” show, (featuring 5 diverse artists) at The Old Mill Inn in Spring Lake Heights, New Jersey. The 1993 “Montage” exhibition was featured on the front page of Herald Extra and called “the most innovative show the Jersey shore has seen in some time” by the local News 12.

The first “Montage” planted the seed for a trailblazing list of shows, exhib...

TV Shows / Movie Sets
2013 to present: CBS, “Madam Secretary””

Galleries / Shows
2016: Monmouth Museum, 37th Annual Juried Exhibition
Kelly Sullivan Fine Art Gallery, “Restless Road” Exhibition
2015: Sunset Hill Gallery, Miniature Art Show
Kelly Sullivan Fine Art Gallery, “Small Works” Exhibition
The Phillips Mill Exhibition
2013: Oil Painters of America Eastern Regional Exhibition
The 84th Annual Phillips Mill Show
South and Maine, Boothbay, Maine
2012: Lambertville and Surrounding Area, 31st Anniversary Show
The Richeson 75 International Small Works Show, Kimberly WI
The 83rd Annual Phillips Mill Show
2011: Encounters In Oil, Art Spirit Gallery, Coeur d'Alene, ID
The 82nd Annual Phillips Mill Show, PA – Award for Oil Painting
Simple Pleasures, One Women Show, The Orchard Hill Collections, Lambertville, NJ
2010: Pin-Ups, Sticking it to Breast Cancer – Producer, Artist, Driggs, ID
Art of Beer – Winner, Coming Home Holiday Ale Label, Victor, ID
2009: Pin-Ups, Sticking it to Breast Cancer – Producer, Artist, Driggs, ID
2007: Art of The Fall – Best In Show, Driggs, ID
2003: Art of the Nude, Producer, Artist, Asbury Park, NJ
2001: Lady Paints the Blues, Gallery Domani, Red Bank, N...