Drifter and Steamers

Kelly, a New Zealander, had no formal art training. Nevertheless he taught at Auckland School of Art before moving to London in the mid-thirties. Read thought that there was ‘always some element of poetry discovered by his imagination rather than his recording eye’. And indeed, Drifter and Steamers can be described as one of the most poetic of the School Prints. The muted, subtle blues and greys, with an overall mistiness, surrounding the strong focus on the funnel in the foreground, give the print a dreamlike quality. (1946, Herbert Read, Introduction to Paintings by Felix Kelly, Falcon Press)