The Stan Kelly Art Group was founded in 1981 when one of Ararat’s most important artistic sons, Stan Kelly OAM, began teaching watercolour painting at the Ararat Town Hall’s Art Craft Workshop (now the Ararat Arts Precinct Studio).

Stan Kelly was a respected botanical artist renowned for his comprehensive study of eucalypts, as well as wildflowers and fungi. Many of the original participants in these weekly classes attended with the aim of learning botanical art from this master of the genre.

Stan Kelly died in 2001, but the group continued and is known today as the Stan Kelly Art Group as a tribute to their late teacher. Since that time the turnover of membership has introduced broader genres in artworks into the group and all are inspired by individual passions.