EDUCATION
Kelly Leahy Radding’s art education includes Colorado College, CO, Fine Arts Major. She graduated with an Associates Degree in Advertising Design and Illustration from the Art Institute of Houston, 1983. Her further education included Children’s Illustration classes at Rhode Island School of Design and a Certificate in Botanical Art and Illustration from The New York Botanical Gardens Botanical Art program, 2002.
She has studied with contemporary egg tempera masters Koo Schadler in her New Hampshire Studio and Scherer & Ouporov at the Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, Maine.
Juried/Group/Solo Exhibitions and Awards (Selected)
2023 Encounters with the Animal Kingdom, the Society of Animal Artists, Janice Mason Art Museum, Cadiz, KY
2022 Art & the Animal: the Society of Animal Artists 62nd Annual Exhibition, Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Redding CA
2021 Art That Matters to the Planet, Society of Animal Artists Member’s Exhbition, Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Jamestown NY
2020 Society of Animal Artists Member’s Exhibition, The Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum, Oradell, NJ
2020 Abundant Future: Cultivating Diversity in Garden, Farm and Field, Fourth New York Botanical Garden Triennial Exhibition, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY
2020 Celebrating the National Lands of California, the Wildling Museum of Art & Nature, Solvang, CA
2020 Earth, Air, Water, Fire: Balancing on the Edge, The Grand Theatre for the Arts, Tracy, CA
2019 Art & the Animal: the Society of Animal Artists 59th Annual Exhibition, the Briscoe Western Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
2019 Earth, Air, Water, Fire: Balancing on the Edge, Art Galleries at Tides Converge, The Presidio, San Francisco, CA
2017 Wildlife Treasures, Society of Animal Artists, Nature in Art Museum & Gallery, Gloucester, UK
2017 63rd Annual Exhibition- National Society of Painters in Casein & Acrylic, Salmagundi Club, NY
2016 Focus on Nature XIV, Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Jamestown NY – Juror’s Award
2016 Out of Africa, Society of Animal Artists/African Wildlife Foundation
2014 Weird, Wild & Wonderful, Second New York Botanical Garden Triennial Exhibition, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY
2014 Focus on Nature XIII, New York State Museum, Albany NY – Juror’s Award
2014 Blanche Ames National Art Exhibition, Ames Mansion Museum, Borderland State Park, North Easton, MA
2013 Botanical Images Scotia – BISCOT, Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK 2013
2013 Botanicals, Environmental Expressions in Art. The Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection, Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Kew Gardens, London, England
2010 Birds In Art 2010, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau WI
2009 Losing Paradise, Endangered Plants Here and Around the World, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO, Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago, IL, New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. 2009
2007 12th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration, Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh, PA
2014 -2019, 2022, Waterfowl Festival, Easton MD
2011-2015, Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, Charleston, SC
Society of Animal Artists 53rd, 54th, 59th & 62nd Annual Exhibitions
3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, 17th Annual International Juried Botanical Art Exhibition, American Society of Botanical Artists and The Horticultural Society of New York, New York, NY
Animals, Birds & Wildlife, 2018 & 2019, Richeson75 International Art Competitions, finalist, 5 merit awards
MUSEUMS/COLLECTIONS (Selected)
- New York State Museum, Albany, NY
- Permanent Collection of FFAST Museum, Fiesole Italy
- Collection of Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton
- Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Brooklyn, NY
- National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kauai, HI
- Ron Geslin (fomerly RCA Records)
- Denise Thompson
- Caroline Wilkinson
- Jeanne Schmid
- Adam Beshara
- John Falk
- Cindy Konney
- Jeanne Snell
- Nancy Ruffing
- Steven Rockefeller
- Victoria Ferber
- Private Collector, New Jersey, 2 pieces
- Private Collector, New York, 1 piece