Jessica and Liliana, or Mother and Child oil on canvas, 16Óx 20Ó

At 25, Marstons Mills' Jenny Kelley is a natural at capturing an intimate moment and suspending it in paint. Using her family and friends as models, she has developed a fascination with portraiture. "I look for an emotional connection with the person I am painting," says Kelley. "There is always a story in a face."

In the oil-on-canvas portrait, Laura under the Grape Arbor, a ray of light flows over a girl's shoulder and glimmers across her face before getting lost in a tangle of vines. The portrait has an appealing softness, heightened by the interplay of surrounding scenery. In Three Kids Portrait, a trio of relaxed happy kids grin up the viewer with such sincere happiness, that it makes the viewer smile.

Whether captured in a living room or in an open field, Kelley's subjects seem a natural part of their setting. Figure painting has always been a part of her life, since the days when she was a fourth-grade student drawing Walt Disney characters at Barnstable's Cape Cod Conservatory. As a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, where artistic trends tend to be more conceptual, Kelley bravely stuck to her roots, and for her senior project chose to do a group of family portraits. The portraits are tenderly painted down to the subtlest details, from her subjects' relaxed expressions to the floral patterns on the upholstery.

Since graduating from RISD, Kelley has not only received many portrait commissions, but has painted more than 30 murals. The murals have a fresh natural look and have delighted customers looking for a way to add distinction to their homes. Painted in acrylic on a range of themes from an intricately detailed, 28-foot wide rendering of the Centerville River for a kitchen, to a whimsical fairyland for a little girl's room, the murals are priced by the foot. One large mural netted $4000 for the young artist.

"I am trying to make a living as an artist," says Kelley, who often travels to craft fairs where she sells her jewelry as well as sharing her art portfolios with any potential customers. "I just got my teacher's certificate and am going to start looking for a job teaching art. But right now, I love what I am doing."

For information on Jenny Kelley's portraits, murals, and landscapes, go to www.jennykelley.com.