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Blanket's
most famous resident was painter Harold Osman Kelly, who moved from
the Panhandle
(near Dalhart)
to Blanket in 1939.
Having been a shepherd, cowboy, sharecropper, and occasional rodeo
rider, he had a wealth of experience to paint from. His talent for
sketching was developed at an early age and he once illustrated
his favorite Charles Dicken's book, The Pickwick Papers.
After the move to Blanket,
his wife took a job at a Brownwood
laundry and the couple lived in converted chickencoop. In poor health,
Kelly painted from encylopedic memory of people, small towns and
landscapes. He graduated to oil and canvas and when Lexie Dean Robertson
of Rising Star saw promise in his work, he was introduced to the
famous painter Jerry
Bywaters, who was then director of the Dallas Museum of Fine
Arts.
Bywaters helped market Kelly's paintings and arranged a 1950 exhibition
for him. He also invited him to serve as artist-in-residence at
the State Fair of Texas. Kelly's output was meager. Because of this,
his talent was never fully recognized. He has been, however, described
as "one of the few genuine primitive painters we have had in our
country."
Kelly, who died in 1955, has the largest collection of his paintings
at Texas A&M University in College
Station.
©
John Troesser
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