Kelly Clause knows the virtue of patience. The Santa Barbara native waited in the wings — and worked hard — while her dream slowly took shape. Now, it seems Clause is exactly where she wants to be: a stone’s throw from the cerulean Pacific that features prominently in her oeuvre and defined her upbringing.
That’s no exaggeration — from her new gallery and studio on Anacapa Street in the Funk Zone, you can smell the ocean in the air and feel it on your skin. Clause aims to give those same sensations with her art, be it a watercolor, oil painting, linoleum block print, enamel mug, or the side of a building, where she painted a marlin for Bluewater Grill. Some pieces capture the fluidity of a humpback whale about to puncture the water’s surface or a foamy current pushing toward the coast; others, the stoicism of a swordfish or yellowfin tuna like those mounted high at a seafood joint. “There’s a powerful mystery in marine life that people are drawn to,” Clause said at her studio last week. “I think the more we become in awe of what’s around us, the more likely we are to protect it.”
She was reeled in quickly. The daughter of a UCSB-trained marine biologist and fisherman, Clause grew up surfing, fishing, and observing tide pools. “A lot of my love for the ocean was influenced by my parents and how they raised us,” she explained. “My mom would take us down to the low tides — she would know the scientific name of every marine organism.”