Ralph McKelvey. Gulf Key Jungle. Oil on canvas, 20 by 24 inches.
Ralph McKelvey was a successful insurance man representing Lloyds of London in New York City when the 1929 Wall Street crash forced him to leave the world of business for a career in art. A leader in art development in Florida, McKelvey assisted in the formation or expansion of art clubs in Daytona Beach, Bradenton, Clearwater and Sarasota. He won recognition as a painter, writer, teacher, critic and director of art museums.
McKelvey moved to Daytona Beach in 1931 “after wasting 30 years” in the insurance business. In Daytona he became a charter member of the Daytona Beach Art League. He spent 1932-1933 studying in Europe, returning to Florida, and Bradenton, in 1934. McKelvey is listed in the Report of the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury to Federal Emergency Relied Administration, December 8, 1933-June 30, 1934, as an artist working for the government; his address at 814 44th Street in Bradenton. As director of the Bradenton area WPA Project and the National Art Project for three and a half years McKelvey did paintings of historical buildings in Manatee County including the Braden Castle and the Gamble Mansion which were given to the Chamber of Commerce. In 1937 he helped organized the Art League of Manatee County, serving first as secretary, and later president.
In 1941 McKelvey participated in the development of the Florida Gulf Coast Group, a group of west coast Florida artists with over seventy members. In 1943 he succeeded Henry White Taylor as director of the Clearwater Art Museum, increasing its membership from 87 to 373.
Ralph McKelvey, Junior Yacht Basin, Clearwater, 1941. Oil on canvas 28 by 36 inches.
McKelvey served as president of the Florida Federation of Art, 1945-46. In 1950, in association with Hugh McKean, Hollis Holbrook, E.R. Hunter and Hilton Leech, he helped organize the Florida Artists Group, a statewide organization of professional Florida artists, that held regular exhibits and helped stimulate art interest. In 1952 McKelvey was appointed the first full time director of the Sarasota Art Association. Under his leadership the work of professional west coast of Florida artists, from Naples to Clearwater, was exhibited and shown in regular circuit tours. In 1954 McKelvey returned to Bradenton as director of the new Bradenton Art Center and the Art League of Manatee County. He died in 1958. In February 1958 a memorial exhibit of his work was held at the Art Center in Bradenton.
Born: 1878, Sandusky, Ohio.
Died: April 3, 1958, Bradenton.
Education: Ohio State University; Stanford University, California; Oberlin College, Ohio, AB; New York City; Paris.
Membership: Daytona Beach Art League, co-founder; Art League of Manatee County, 1937-38, co-founder; Florida Federation of Art, president 1945-46; Florida Artist Group, founder and 1st director, president, 1949-1957; Clearwater Art Museum, 1943-49, director; Sarasota Art Association, 1952, director.
Exhibits: First Art Salon, Yowell-Drew Department Store, Beach Street, Daytona Beach, February 9-16, 1932, Dune Scene With White Light; Daytona Beach Art League, Art Mart, April 1, 1933; Art League of Manatee County, 1st Annual Exhibition, Garden Club Rooms, Memorial Pier, Bradenton, February 8-21, 1937, oils, Morning Woods, Wood’s Road, Afternoon Woods, Beaver House, Sanciveria and Fruit Juice, Portrait of Mrs. O.E.P., Sunrise Pines (Fireplace Cover), Long Boat Palms, Pines-Sagamore Estates, At Flying Eagle Camp; Art League of Manatee County, Bradenton Woman’s Club, April 2, 1937, Pines on the Cortez Road; Florida Federation of Art, 11th Annual Exhibition, St. Augustine, December 2-5, 1937, Afternoon Woods, Jungle; Art League of Manatee County, one man exhibit, January 1938; Art League of Manatee County, 2nd Annual Exhibition, February 27-March 7, 1938, oils, Portrait of Mrs. John F. McKelvey, Portrait of Miss Rosemary Miller, Gulf Beach, Jungle Shore, Inspiration Run; Art League of Manatee County, November 1938, Florida Door Yard; Florida Federation of Art Annual, Society of The Four Arts, Palm Beach, December 1938, member, jury of selection; Art League of Manatee County, 3rd Annual, Memorial Pier, Bradenton, February 8-22, 1939, oils, Winter Jungle, Mediterranean Morning, Threatened Beach, Road to Richford, Winter Oak; The Studio Guild Galleries, Fifth Avenue, New York City, December 4-16, 1939, one man exhibit, Afternoon Woods, Morning Woods, Solitaire, Ohio Wheat Field, Jungle-Long Boat Key, Gulf Key Wasteland, Inspiration Run, Bus Driver, Slow Water, Myakka Oaks, Road to Italy, Normandy Beach, Green Hills-Partial Eclipse, Rain at the Post Office, Neutrality; Florida Federation of Art, member jury of selection, annual exhibit, 1939; Art League of Manatee County, 4th Annual, Memorial Pier, Bradenton, February 18-March 2, 1940, oils, Sea Grape Shelter, Abandoned House, Gulf Shore, Key Jungle, Carolina November; Sarasota Art Association, 10th Annual, March 1940, Bus Driver; Federal Art Center Gallery, St. Petersburg, February 1941, one man show; Florida Federation of Art, December 1941, Tampa, Florida Trains the RAF at Carlstrom Field; Clearwater Art Museum, April 22-May 5, 1941, Twelve Florida Artists, Snake Hunt, Junior Yacht Basin; Florida Federation of Art, Circuited Exhibit, 1941-42, Admission by Aluminum; Clearwater Art Museum, Gulf Coast Artists Group, Annual Circuit, 1942, Snake Hunt, Junior Yacht Basin; Clearwater Art Museum, 8th Annual Members Exhibit, February 1942, Florida Dooryard; Clearwater Art Museum, 9th Annual Exhibit, March 1943; Florida Federation of Art, 16th Annual, St. Petersburg, December 1943, Solitaire; Florida Gulf Coast Artists Group, nation wide circuit, Miami to Wisconsin, Newark, San Francisco, Syracuse, 1944, Boatyard, Bobbie and Jane; Clearwater Art Museum, 10th Annual Exhibit, March 1944; Florida Federation of Art, Outstanding Art Work by Artists, Jacksonville, 1944, sponsored by Arts Exhibition Club, and Art Department of Woman’s Club, oil, Manhasset Bay; Clearwater Art Museum, Florida Gulf Coast Art Group, 4th Annual Exhibit, toured the state, 1944-1945; Art Club of St. Petersburg, one man show, March 1945; Florida Gulf Coast Group, 4th Annual Exhibition, nation wide circuit, July 1945-May 1946, Myakka Brook, Dorothy; Florida Federation of Art, 19th Annual, Miami Beach, 1945, Iramay, Contour Plowing; Florida Gulf Coast Group, Clearwater Art Museum, 5th Annual, nation wide circuit, July 1946-May 1947, oil, Early Florida Home; Florida Gulf Coast Group, Clearwater Art Museum, 6th Annual, nation wide circuit, July 1947-May 1948, South Wind; Florida Gulf Coast Group, sponsorship, Clearwater Art Museum, 7th Annual nation wide circuit, July 1948 to May 1949, oil, Ste. Famille; Florida Gulf Coast Group, 8th Annual Exhibition, Clearwater Art Museum, on nation wide circuit, July 1949 to May 1950, oil, Drum Majorette; Jacksonville WPA Art Center, April 1950; Florida Artist Group, 6th Annual Circuit, Palm Beach Art League, April 1955, Wind-Water and Flour Paste; Art League of Manatee County, All Members Exhibit, October 1955, 209 Ninth St. W. Bradenton, oil, White Shadow’s, French Alps; Florida State Fair, Tampa, exhibited between, 1956-1962; Work: Rollins College, Winter Park, Charles Grandison Fairchild, second president of Rollins; one man shows, New York, Bradenton, St. Petersburg, Tampa.
