BIO

Born to Australian parents in Cleveland, Ohio, Lynette Kelly Crain grew up in an ethnically diverse neighborhood learning to appreciate a wide range of cultures, art and interests. After a 35-year career as an illustrator, she became a full-time resident artistat Norfolk’s d’ART Center in the fall of 2005. Her works can be found across the U.S. as well as in collections in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Russian Federation.

Raised among artists and jazz musicians, the arts have always been an integral part of my life. Oils are most currently my medium of choice, but as a post-modern artist, I feel no limitations to either subject matter or media. Plein air paint outs and weekly life drawing sessions have recently afforded my work to move beyond the constraints of graphic and photorealistic work. While my paintings still tend to retain the initial illustrative sketch laid onto the canvas, precision and correctness now give way to wonderful passages of flattening and skewing. As an illustrator, I am bound to representational exactness; as a painter I am continually astounded at the reward of intentional inaccuracies.