About Me
A Passion for Art
I have always painted since childhood and by the age of 14 was using oil colours. I love the buttery texture and tactile nature of oil paint, the way you can move it around, scrape off and keep inspiration flowing.
My main artistic influences come from nature, particularly the English Coastline and the open Downland near to my home. Both places have such wide open spaces and big skies. Light, colour and atmosphere are inspirational to me – even an empty beach, if there are interesting cloud formations can be the starting point for a painting.
Whilst at school, I did not flourish in art and so ended up at business college and went in to an office environment to earn a living. Painting took a back seat. However, by 1998 the drive to paint was getting far too strong, so I took an opportunity to work part-time to spend more timing developing my art. After several years came the chance to take redundancy and step out fully into the art world. So here I am now, painting, teaching, developing my own colours and brushes and following my passion.
I hope you enjoy browsing around my website whether you are a collector or a keen amateur artist, there is plenty to enjoy and do email meif you have any questions either about my paintings or indeed about learning to paint yourself.
Melanie
With my Artist Tutor hat on, I have written four art instruction books to date, all published by HarperCollins, three for oil painters and one beginners book on acrylics. As a teacher I run workshops and painting holidays here in the UK, teaching mainly in oils and gouache. I have been teaching artists and running courses for more than 25 years. Each year I aim to offer a range of structured weekly classes, short breaks and painting holidays. Learning is within small groups with plenty of demonstrations, structured lessons, and one to one support when you need it. I aim to encourage a friendly atmosphere where there are no "silly questions". Everyone has time to develop their own style whilst learning those key skills which underpin your work and will help you become a better, more confident painter. Courses are for adults only but suitable for all abilities unless stated otherwise.
New for 2020, is a range of on-line learning options, from short free-to-view video lessons, to longer structured on-line courses with email support.
For Art Groups, I launched my “on-line video demonstrations”, initially because of restrictions placed on all of us due to Covid 19, but this is a great way to reach out to art groups around the country which are too far away for me to travel to for a 2 hour demonstration.
Over the years I have found synthetic fibres make brushes which are much easier to handle when compared to natural hair. They also seem to have a longer lifespan, keeping their point or edge extremely well.
My range of brushes for both oils and gouache are available in sets or as individual brushes. Different brush types use different grades of synthetic hair, depending on whether they need to keep a springy edge or a sharp point. See them “in action” in various video clips within my art shop pages.
Whilst I love painting with oils, in recent years I have also experimented with gouache rather than pure watercolour. I lucky enough to be able to work directly with a colour chemist and paint manufacturer to develop my own range of artist gouache (now available in the art shop section), using pure pigments, including cadmiums, and not adding any white to colours so that some remain translucent whilst others are naturally opaque. This makes them similar to working with oils, but far easier to travel with and use for outdoor sketching.
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