Kelly is a painter primarily concerned with the "Physical Act of Painting" and the painting process itself. She has always been fascinated by the opposing physical and spiritual connection, within a place of natural beauty and or cultivated wilderness, and is attracted to the basic genres of painting that are landscape and figurative.

Kelly uses oil paint, wax (encaustic) and a variety of different solvents to achieve her pieces. During the application and rubbing out of all pigments, washes and stains she sees forms brought into being and then lost again. Divisions and lines that coexist within the realms of the imaginary and real life all contribute to a painting. Taking special care and attention on layering the canvas with different washes and textures, this process gradually begins to create a visual history of nuances, and forms the pictorial depth she is striving to achieve.

Confident and expressive with her medium, Kelly is unafraid to manipulate the paint boldly around the canvas, sometimes creating a mix of semi-abstract and semi-representational pieces. Although they are not representational, they are merely recreations of images, thoughts and colours seen and experienced from what she often encounters whilst out cycling.

Most often the paintings begin to take on a life of their own, through the layering of paint, washes and stains as mentioned above, whilst added gestures in mark making, drawing, shape and form draw out a narrative within the piece.

Kelly’s practice remains mainly in the studio, although much of her preparatory visual material is gathered from everyday situations, for example the tower blocks in her neighbourhood, or the rolling hills of the Cypriot landscape.

Kelly draws her inspiration from the likes of ‘Colour Field Painters Clyfford Styll and Mark Rothko as well as Bridget Reily, Morandi, Dora Mar, Claude Monet, Cezanne and Peter Lanyon.