Michael O’KellyFine Art & Public Art · Ventura, California

Ceramic murals, public art and paintings byMichael O’Kelly

Painter · Muralist · Sculptor · Illustrator · Writer

Fifty years of art in clay, bronze, paint and ink: public murals and fountains, building facades, paintings with a story in every corner, and drawings of the ancient world.

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Public art & murals

Three walls to get lost in

Hand-glazed tile, researched like a history book. Each has its own page: zoom in close enough to see the glaze, find what’s hidden in the tile, and hear Michael tell the story.

The Ventura Historic Mural beside the Mission.Mural · 2018 · VenturaVentura Historic MuralFind the six butterflies hiding his mistakes. Detail of the Las Palmas tile mural.Mural · 2009 · 60 California StLas PalmasTwo centuries of Ventura, with a dog and a woodpecker hidden in it. The Animal Kingdom Fountain at Santa Barbara Zoo.Fountain · 2009 · Santa Barbara ZooAnimal Kingdom FountainFourteen animals around a pool. How many can you name?

Building facades

Walk Main Street and you’re walking past his work

A lost 1920s building facade re-made, a Victorian front rebuilt from one old photograph, a lounge in green glaze. Three stops, a few blocks apart. Hover or tap a photo to see what was there before.

  1. The Star Lounge storefront on Main Street: a deep green tiled shopfront beneath red brick.01 343 E Main Street

    Star Lounge

    A new building facade, every tile of it in green glaze.
  2. The Kaapicat Café building today: a cream and ochre facade with four arched upper windows above the Kaapicat sign and teal doors.02 377 E Main Street

    Kaapicat Café

    Ventura’s first Post Office, rebuilt from a single old photograph.
  3. The Watermark building: 1920s red brick with bands of blue, gold and red tile and a new top floor.03 598 E Main Street

    Watermark

    A 1920s bank whose lost tile he re-made, so well it reads as original.
Take the building facade walk Open the route in Maps →

Fine art

A crab-legged sea god, an angry heron, and a boar called Pork Chop

Sixteen paintings, each with a story in Michael’s own words, most of them dye sublimations baked into aluminium like a glaze into tile.

Poseidon Fiddles with Time, by Michael O'Kelly.Poseidon Fiddles with Time“Poseidon is now an aged hippie, a minor god who is unhappy, as half his body is a crab.” Dusk (The Angry Heron), by Michael O'Kelly.Dusk (The Angry Heron)“…all watched by chill turtle.” Pork Chop Seeks Saint Luke, Assisi, by Michael O'Kelly.Pork Chop Seeks Saint Luke“Pork Chop continues his quest for salvation.”

See all sixteen paintings, in deep zoom →

Stepping Out, a twelve-foot bronze dancer, on the plaza at Ventura College at sunset.

Sculpture

Stepping Out

A twelve-foot bronze dancer outside the Ventura College Performing Arts Center, made at the last request of the arts patron it honours, Miriam Schwab. Unveiled in 2020.

See the bronze
Pompey the Great, pen and ink with gold leaf.
Pompey the Great · pen, ink & gold leaf

Drawing

Two thousand drawings of the ancient world

From 1973, as a researcher in Mexico City, Michael drew more than 2,000 pre-Columbian and ancient artefacts in pen and ink, for books published in London. Every tone is built from lines and dots. The same line runs under every mural he has made since.

Colossal Olmec head, pen and ink. God K, Maya, pen and ink. Terracotta soldier, pen and ink.
See the drawings →

Stage, screen & page

A storyteller in every medium

A play and a film with Ray Bradbury, and a trilogy about the most famous art forger of the 20th century, written by the man who learned at his easel.

Ray Bradbury and Michael O'Kelly. 2006–2012 · Theatre & filmSeven years with Ray BradburyThe play The Ray Bradbury Odyssey, a theatre festival, ceramic plaques, and the film Live Forever.The Bradbury story → Books · with Todd BinkleyThe Joker’s HandThe true story of Tom Keating, the British Museum’s “most prolific and versatile art forger of the 20th century.” Part ISecret Techniques of the Old MastersPart IIThe Art of DeceptionPart IIIComing About the books →

News

From the studio

Shows, new work and what Michael is up to.

Event · 26–27 September 2026Meet Michael at ArtWalk VenturaBooths 12–13 in Mission Park, by the Museum of Ventura County. Saturday 10–5, Sunday 10–4.Read more → A mosaic of Michael O'Kelly's work: mural, painting, bronze, drawing, fountain and building facade.News · September 2026Welcome to my new siteMichael on his new website: commissioned murals, tile, bronze and paintings, each made for one person, and a thank-you to the team who built it.Read more →
Michael O'Kelly in his studio in Ventura.

The artist

One lifetime, seven careers

  1. 1966–73Guitarist and composer, co-founder of the Omega Guitar Quartet
  2. 1966–nowPainter and illustrator; 2,000 pen-and-ink drawings of ancient artefacts
  3. 1973–86Collector of Mexican dance masks for the British Museum
  4. 1988–92Publisher to Rufino Tamayo; took him to the Hermitage
  5. 2000–25Ceramic murals, building facades and fountains
  6. 2005–12Seven years with Ray Bradbury
  7. 2006–nowWriter and film-maker

Read his story

Shown, collected & honoured

  • British Museum mask collections
  • State Hermitage Tamayo retrospective
  • Santa Barbara Museum of Art
  • Brighton Museum
  • Mayor’s Arts Award Ventura, 2015

Press & recognition →

Commissions

Want a wall like these on your building?

Lobbies, storefronts, whole building facades, fountains, theatres, homes. Every commission starts with a conversation about the place and the people in it, then a drawing.

Start a conversation Call 805.701.4488