Born in Roseau, the capital of Dominica, in 1953, Kelo was determined to be a painter from the age of eight when he made his first brush from coconut fibre and used the juice of the crushed flowers for colour. He has received no formal training in art and learned to paint by drawing on nature for his inspiration, as well as for his materials. One of his favourite places to paint has always been Casso, an area of natural beauty with very few man-made distractions. Kelo would leave Roseau early, before sunrise, so as to walk the two mile track to Casso and capture The luminous effects of the sun rising over the mountains in his paintings.
Kelo, a Rastafarian says “I think my work was stimulated by my way of life and later by the work of Picasso,” crediting Picasso’s African inspired primitive works as having a great influence upon his own work. Fellow artist Omowale Stewart of Barbados, described Kelo as a prolific painter whose bold, effective brush strokes gives one a sense of creation in action. His use of line and texture, as well as the abstract primitive quality of his work make them unique and set them apart from the other contemporary Dominican paintings.