Michael Killelea is an artist, author, teacher and traveler.

He grew up near the ocean, is a US Navy veteran and an avid outdoorsman. The sea, and in fact all of nature, inspire him to try and capture the boundless moods of our amazing world at every opportunity he can find. And yet, in spite of his intense efforts, he rarely seems to have enough time to capture the full beauty he see's at every turn. Killelea is an inveterate "plein-air" painter who feels that the watercolor medium is most alive when painting on location, and he takes delight in sharing that joy with students and onlookers no matter where they are. He has traveled extensively, almost always with paint and brush, recording his impressions of people and places around the world. (Check out one of the 35 samples at bottom left.)

Killelea's work and biography have been included in the Smithsonian Institution's Library for the American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery, the Library of Congress, the Watson Research Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and those have become the basis for permanent files on him. He has been included in Buffalo's Burchfield Penney Art Center data base as one of 215 best past and present artists in Western New York. One of his works was singled out by Buffalo Spree magazine as the best representational watercolor out of 670 pieces in Burchfield Penney's "The Artist Among US II" exhibition. His watercolors have additionally been featured in numerous local galleries on Long Island, in Western New York and at the New York Mercantile Exchange in NYC.

"I love painting
in plein-air.
There is an immediacy on location that demands an honesty from any artist willing to put themselves at the mercy of the elements. An artist can't experience a scene in a studio quite the same way it's possible to do outdoors. For me, this is one of the purest forms of painting because success demands
a very deliberate approach.
I find that painting outdoors is usually a very intense and even physical experience."

His marine paintings have been displayed in dozens of group exhibits in museums across the US. Two of his paintings were part of an exhibit in the Capital Building in Washington, DC and became part of the US Navy Museum collection in Washington.

He is the former Secretary and a Signature member of the American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA). He's also a Signature member and Program Committee chair of the Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society, a former Board member of the Niagara Arts & Cultural Center in Niagara Falls, NY and a signature member of the Buffalo (NY) Society of Artists. Killelea is a graduate of SUNY Farmingdale and has attended Pratt Institute and the School of Visual Arts. His work is in numerous private collections, has been reproduced on book and magazine covers, posters, prints & greeting cards and is featured in two books he wrote and illustrated about Long Island's rural North Fork.

Check his upcoming classes, events and displays >>