Artist Research: Gary Kelley

Gary Kelley is an American illustrator that received his degree in art from the University of Northern Iowa, began his career as a graphic designer and art director. He has received awards from the New York Society of Illustrators including the Hamilton King Award in 1992. His clients include the New Yorker Magazine, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Atlantic Monthly, Time, Newsweek, GQ, and many major publishers and advertising agencies. His most recent endeavor is a mural at a renovated Barnes and Nobel Bookstore in New York. He is also a guest lecturer at the Illustration Academy held every summer. His painting work uses cubist principles and his color palette is influenced a lot by his use of pastels. Kelley's work is great because it effortlessly evokes the energy of the situations he's trying to depict like a Jazz concert or Spanish dance,etc. The colors and interplay of figure and background really go a long way in describing the mood of bygone classic eras..
his site
Here is a demonstration by Kelley on the Illustration Academy site.