Pua Olua

John Melville Kelly

John Kelly's mastery of the complex color aquatint technique, enhanced with minimal, delicately rendered etching line, is evidenced in this glowing portrait of a Hawaiian woman, a spray of gardenias superimposed around her. Kelly's experimentation with manipulating the inks on the plate allowed for the gradation of light and tone in the color of each print. Because of this, no two color aquatints are exactly alike.

"Pua Olua" roughly translates to "two flowers" comparing the beauty of the unidentified model and the gardenias. This image is not included in the book on Kelly's work "Hawaiian Idyll" and we have not found another impression on line or at auction. From the artist's estate.