Harold Osman Kelly
(1884-1955)
Blanket, Texas
HO Kelly was a
fascinating character more interested in his ability as a horseman instead
of his art. He rode his mare Babe into Blanket, Texas almost every day.
He likes bouncy polkas, people and talk.
Below is what Kelly stated in his own words:
"Like lots of
folks, I was often short around Christmas so I made a practice of
painting watercolors for little gifts. I have been working with oils a
little over a year and wish I would have started sooner. I like to paint
Texas pictures for Texas people. However, every now and then I like to
paint a Pennsylvania Dutch picture with it air of permanent prosperity
and simple good living. A few glasses of good keg beer on Saturday
night, a few nice waltzes, church on Sunday morning and watch the
quarter horses dust out in the afternoon.
At 16 I left high school and went to work on a
Pennsylvania farm. The life really began for me among the Scotch Irish
and Mennonite farmers. Hard work, good eats, pleasant sights and smells
from the big slate roofed bank barns, break horses, smoke houses, red
and white barns, fat cattle, sheep, hogs and horses, and above all "Fast
Rode Horses". |

HO Kelly in his Studio
Of the 30 states I have been in (and worked most of them), I love Texas
best, and it has been my home for years. We settled down, my wife and I,
in the northwest corner by the XIT Buffalo Springs ranch and prospered
until the five years of drought and dust of the 30's wound us up.
Anyway, one doesn't have to own land to enjoy on it, and I say from
Austin or Bryan on west to Kerrville is close to Paradise to me."
H.O. Kelly's paintings left a warm, joyful impression of the ranches and
towns he loved and expressed his love with art. |