Melanie’s paintings speak of colour, energy and light. She paints the landscapes she loves, working from her studio in the Cotswolds. Her subject matter includes the majestic woodlands and sweeping meadows that surround her home. She frequently travels to Scotland, Devon and Cornwall to paint and gather inspiration for her breathtaking river scenes and powerful seascapes.

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Melanie completed her fine art degree in the late 1990’s here in Cheltenham. She then worked as a secondary school art teacher for twenty happy years before her own creativity stopped her in her tracks and insisted she pay it some attention.

Melanie believes that the inherent relationship we all have to the landscape allows her paintings to summon strong emotions: “Every painting has its own narrative, but it does not aim to tell you my story. I believe that once a painting is complete it is no longer mine, that I need to step back to allow the viewer to step into the painting and find their own narrative. I believe this is the reason why my paintings evoke such deep-set memories and sentiment in their owners.”

She strives to create this magical communication between artwork and owner in every one of her pieces.

“When I am painting, I am using colours and marks based on how I feel about a location; this allows a painting to evolve and find its own voice rather than be an exact representation of a place.”

Melanie’s paintings pulse with her love of light, quality of surface, and sensitive mark-making. This strong stylistic feature in her work has led to it being described as both impressionistic and expressionistic.

“The joy of painting for me is throwing ink and paint onto a surface. My curiosity about those initial marks in turn gives me the greatest opportunities to explore and harness my creativity, because once that chaos is harnessed a painting can find its strength. In my process I allow the energy of the initial runs of ink to give me a framework to respond to throughout the painting. It's really important to me that I allow that energy to shine through, so I make sure to retain some of the initial mark making in the final painting, as well as layers of refinement.”

Painting en plein air has been formative in shaping Melanie’s style. Whilst working in the landscape the elements can take control; strong Cornish winds can whip ink across a surface, fine Cotswold rain will create accidental marks. These qualities and experiences are then harnessed in her studio work. Melanie has a gift for capturing the emotion we feel whilst in the landscape.

“I love painting in every season, feeling weather conditions change, noticing subtle shifts in light as the day opens or closes. I think the translation of light and colour will always fascinate me. Being present is the most important part of my process. It allows me to feel the landscape and translate that feeling into paint, whether I am in the dappled light of my local woodland, on the beach absorbing the movement of water, or on a windswept hillside. All of my paintings are inspired by working in the landscape, however many hours are spent just observing, not only what I see, but also how I feel.”

In recent years Melanie has served as the Artist in Residence at WWT Slimbridge, while in 2020 she was featured in several publications including Devon Life, The Marine Conservation Society Magazine and The Artist Magazine.