Landscape Painter Melanie Cormack-Hicks Joins The Paragon Gallery

We’re always on the lookout for exciting new talent at the Paragon Gallery, and we couldn’t be happier to welcome a fresh face to our family of artists, just in time for Christmas!

“Drops of Life”, Melanie Cormack-Hicks

Based locally in the Cotswolds, Melanie Cormack-Hicks creates lush, textured paintings that speak of colour, energy and light. Through a profound connection with landscape and an instinctive intuition for the power of mark-making, she seeks to harness the energy of her settings and invites the viewer to form their own bond with what they see. “I believe that once a painting is complete it is no longer mine,” she says. “I need to step back in order for the viewer to step into the painting and find their own narrative.”

Working en plein air, she makes full use of the elements around her. Fine rain in the Cotswolds will leave its delicate trace in the surface of her paint, and a lashing sea gale in Cornwall will drive her ink furiously across the panel.

Melanie completed her fine art degree here in Cheltenham before working as a secondary school art teacher for twenty happy years. Eventually her creative drive took over and she threw herself full-time into painting. She has served as the Artist in Residence at WWT Slimbridge and in 2020, Melanie has been featured in Devon Life, The Marine Conservation Society Magazine, and The Artist Magazine.

We hope you can visit soon to experience Melanie’s fabulous paintings in person. In the meantime, a selection of her work can be viewed here.