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, Scherer & Ouporov and Julio Reyes & Candice Bohannon.

Juried/Group/Solo Exhibitions (Selected)

2025 18th ARC Salon, Art Renewal Center; semi-finalist and finalist

2025 Women in Watercolor International Juried Competition, online exhibition

2025 Birds in Art, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau WI

2025 Art & the Animal: the Society of Animal Artists 65th Annual Exhibition, The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho, Idaho Falls ID

2025 92nd Annual National Juried Exhibition, Lyme Art Association, Old Lyme, CT

2024 Birds in Art, Traveling Exhibition,  Newington-Cropsey Foundation, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York ; Michelson Museum of Art, Marshall, Texas

2024 Art & the Animal: the Society of Animal Artists 64th Annual Exhibition, The Sioux City Public Museum, Sioux City IA

2024 Birds in Art, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau WI

2024 Artists Magazine 40th Annual Art Competion, Honorable Mention, Animal/Wildlife

2023 Birds in Art, Traveling Exhibition, Forest Preserve District of Will County, Plum Creek Nature Center, Joliet, Illinois; Newington-Cropsey Foundation, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York ; Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art, Shawnee, Oklahoma; and Wichita Falls Museum of Art, Wichita Falls, Texas

2023 Birds in Art, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau WI

2023 Art & the Animal: the Society of Animal Artists 63rd Annual Exhibition NATIONAL TOUR: The Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum, Oradell, NJ; The Dane G. Hansen Memorial Museum, Logan, KS; The Peggy Notebaert Museum of The Chicago Academy of Sciences, Chicago, IL

2023 Art & the Animal: the Society of Animal Artists 63rd Annual Exhibition, The Stifel Fine Arts Center, Wheeling, WV – River Works Purchase Award

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

2013 Botanical Images Scotia – BISCOT, Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

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, 63rd, 64th & 65th Annual Exhibitions

American Society of Botanical Artists and The Horticultural Society of New York, New York, NY; 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, 17th Annual International Juried Botanical Art Exhibition

Animals, Birds & Wildlife, 2018, 2019, 2024, 2025 Richeson75 International Art Competitions, finalist, 5 merit awards

 

HONORS AND AWARDS

2026 Oak Spring Garden Foundation 2026 Botanical Residency

2025 Award of Excellence, Art & the Animal, the Society of Animal Artists 65th Annual Exhibition

2025 Riverworks Purchase Award, Art & the Animal, the Society of Animal Artists 65th Annual Exhibition

2025 Judges Favorite, Women in Watercolor International Juried Competition

2025 18th ARC Salon, Art Renewal Center Staff Award

2023 Riverworks Purchase Award, Art & the Animal, the Society of Animal Artists 63rd Annual Exhibition

2020 2nd Place, Sense of Place, Wethersfield Art Academy, awarded by Peter Trippi, editor of Fine Art Connoisseur

2017 Best & Runner Up in Vellum, The Newport Flower Show, The New England Society of Botanical Artists

2017 Juror’s Award, Focus on Nature XIV

2014 Juror’s Award, Focus on Nature XIII

2007 New York Central Art Supply Award, 10th Annual International Juried Botanical Art Exhibition

2001 Best of Show, Mixed Media, Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Annual Members Exhibit

2000 New York Central Art Supply Award, 3rd Annual International Juried Botanical Art Exhibition

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 (formerly RCA Records)
    • Denise Thompson
    • Caroline Wilkinson
    • Jeanne Schmid
    • Adam Beshara
    • John Falk
    • Cindy Konney
    • Jeanne Snell
    • Nancy Ruffing
    • Steven Rockefeller