Whether she’s applying a Venetian plaster finish to the kitchen walls of her Trenton home or keeping gold leaf gilding from floating away at 24 stories in the air, Kelly Ingram is enjoying life as a painter.
In the past 24 years, Ingram’s work for her business, Kelly Ingram Finishes, has taken her to different heights and across the country. No two jobs are the same, and each one needs a different amount of time to complete. Ingram said a project could last anywhere from two days to several months.
One of Ingram’s projects was a life-size cross atop the 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. Ingram weathered her way through a thunder and lightning storm standing on nearly 24 stories of scaffolding as she gilded the cross with thin gold leaf.
Nearly 20 years later, Ingram said she can still see the shining cross when she’s in that area of the city.
“That’s another thing I love about my work, is it just takes me into different experiences,” Ingram said. “It’s not the same thing over and over again.”
Most of her work can be seen in Princeton and the Bucks County area, but Ingram, 57, has also worked in Philadelphia, New York, South Jersey and even her hometown of Boston.
The walls and ceiling of Princeton’s McCarter Theatre all bear Ingram’s handiwork as well. In 2002, she had a seven-week window to paint a cloud-like effect amid other ongoing remodeling efforts. When the curtain rose for the next season of performances, everything was in place.
Ingram applies several different types of finishes, but noted that the preparation of the wall itself is just as important as the finishing work, and “sometimes the imperfections work with you, and sometimes they don’t.” One type of finish is called glazing, which is a thinned-out color applied over another color to give it soft movement and depth, just enough so it doesn’t look like a flat wall. A popular finish is the Venetian plaster, where Ingram applies thin layers of plaster, burnishing as she goes, leaving the wall with a very glossy finish.
“I love color and putting it together, whether its neutral tones or vivid tones,” Ingram said. “So the favorite kind of job is when the client is involved in helping create the process, not where it’s impeding, but where they’re enjoying choosing the colors with me, or the designer… It’s [when] the designer, the client and the painter are working together to create something fun and exciting.”
After many successful years as a decorative painter, Ingram suddenly found jobs coming less frequently. While painting a wall for a client, her client’s jewelry caught her eye. She learned her client was a saleswoman for the company, Stella & Dot. Upon hearing the name of the company, Ingram said she started to laugh—the two names were her dog’s and mother’s names, respectively.
She decided to try her hand at jewelry sales, and as she hosted more and more parties, Ingram realized she loved how the parties allowed women to talk with each other and discover connections: a common love of baking, an invitation to attend a new church, or a similar experience with a child.
The jewelry selection, Ingram said, has something for everyone. Many of the modern pieces were inspired by older vintage styles, and consist of bold, delicate or statement pieces of varying colors.
“There’s no pressure to buy, no big sales pitch. It’s really about women coming together and trying on jewelry and having conversation,” Ingram said. “So for me, bringing people together that normally wouldn’t be getting together and finding that common ground, that common thread—it’s just been so much fun to watch that.”
To Ingram’s surprise, she also began to get referrals for her decorative painting from the parties, and suddenly her artwork was in demand once again.
Ingram’s latest endeavor has been canvas painting—mainly still life and abstract—which she hopes to eventually devote more time to pursuing in the next three years.
“My goal is to call myself an artist when I’m 60. That’s my birthday present to myself,” Ingram said.
For more information about Kelly Ingram Finishes or Stella & Dot, call (609) 462-2932. On the Web: kellyingram.com.
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