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InspirationIllustration

Fresh fashion watercolours by Kelly Beeman that portray colourful characters in a vivid world

Kelly Beeman is a Brooklyn-based artist and fashion illustrator with an unmistakable style (featured previously). Completely self-taught, she likes to combine mundane objects and places with beautiful, mysterious subjects. "I enjoy creating contradictions; a very controlled painting, for instance, that is very expressive. Or a subject that doesn't quite fit in to her surroundings. Or maybe work that is very flat but extremely detailed, so you see something that is simultaneously very simple but very elaborate."

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Four women with dark hair in colourful patterned knitwear and clothing sit together in an interior space with geometric furnishings and a newspaper, illustrated in watercolour by Kelly Beeman

Her diverse body of work consists of simple, black and white contour drawings of nudes that evolve into fully-rendered watercolour paintings portraying a vivid world composed on clothing, everyday objects, nature, and interior spaces.

"Fashion for me is this very powerful tool that enhances the characters that I paint," Kelly adds. "So I use it to create personalities and stories. Before I started working this way, I was painting nudes, and most of my work still begins that way, with a nude figure that I 'dress' as the piece develops, usually according to whatever I feel that subject would wear.

"Because these subjects are invented, clothing is a major part of constructing them and transforming them into people with stories, preferences, opinions, context. Sometimes I enjoy putting them somewhere – backgrounds function the way the clothes do, conveying information about the person in the painting, but sometimes making them feel out of place too."

Kelly's work has been published in Vogue China, Vogue Korea, Marie Claire Italia, InStyle, Interview Magazine and Numero Tokyo. Clients include J.W. Anderson, Loewe and Tory Burch.

"Inspiration comes from everywhere. Sometimes it's something specific – I recently went to the Prado Museum in Madrid and felt very inspired there by all of the Renaissance paintings – but usually I'm merely responding to my thoughts and don't feel especially 'inspired' in the typical sense.

"With my watercolours, I think of each new painting as a view inside a world that I am gradually making up and I am inspired by adding to it, expanding the view inside. Lately, I've been obsessed with 'found photos' and can't stop looking at them...so some of those images will inevitably turn up somewhere."

Discover more of Kelly's work at www.kellybeeman.com.

Figure in light blue socks and dark shorts sits by a blue tiled pool, holding dark leaves, in a watercolour illustration by Kelly Beeman
Two figures recline together on a bed with striped bedding and patterned pillows, rendered in Kelly Beeman's watercolour style with bold outlines and controlled detail
A woman in a coral sleeveless top sits on a blue patterned rug with newspaper, accompanied by a black dog wearing a studded collar, beside striped cushions and a potted plant by a window
Four women sit together in an interior space, wearing colourful patterned clothing including a yellow dress, polka dot outfit and striped top, with a window behind them showing a blue sky and landscape
Woman with dark hair wearing a patterned slip dress beside blue iris flowers against a pale yellow background, a watercolour fashion illustration by Kelly Beeman
Two figures with closed eyes sit back-to-back wearing patterned knitwear and olive-coloured outerwear against a pink background in Kelly Beeman's watercolour illustration style
Two women with long dark hair stand in a snowy landscape wearing stylish winter coats, one in brown with a white collar and the other in black and white stripes with a fur collar
Figure in striped stockings climbing a tree branch above a group of women in patterned clothing beneath green foliage and blue sky
Illustration by Kelly Beeman showing a group of fashionably dressed people and horses with mountains in the background, rendered in watercolour with muted tones and stylised figures
Woman with dark hair wearing a colourful floral patterned garment, seated at a piano with sheet music for Chopin's Nocturne visible behind her
Two women with striking features hold a black cat with bright blue eyes against a dusty rose background, one wearing a light blue collar and the other a patterned navy jacket
Four women with long dark hair relax by a blue-tiled swimming pool, wearing patterned swimwear and striped clothing, set against a house and tree-lined landscape.
Two stylised women sit together in a garden setting, one in black clothing with a cigarette holder and the other in a blue patterned dress, surrounded by green foliage and a building
Kelly Beeman watercolour illustration of stylised figures with long dark hair wearing black sleeveless garments, reflected in a mirror beside a vase of blue flowers
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