MELANIE MAX - PAINTER

Melanie’s semi-abstract landscapes are inspired by the British coast and wetlands. She works from her studio aboard her narrowboat with views across the washes in Cambridgeshire. Originally from Cornwall, her life’s path gradually took her to the flat lands of the Fens and closer to her favourite coastline, the Norfolk coast. Melanie has a fine art degree from Chelsea School of Art and after a career in web design she now completely focuses on painting. Melanie’s work features in private collections and has exhibited widely in the UK.

I think of my paintings as found landscapes and as visual journeys. They evolve on the canvas and the focus of the painting gradually comes into view. I welcome accident and ambiguity in my paintings.

I attempt to create in my paintings a similar experience to an unfamiliar landscape being looked at for the first time, an uncertainty of what lies ahead, the puzzle that we undertake in trying to identify what belongs to the sky, what is the sea, what is the land and at what point they all meet. This active consideration of the paintings illusion to space, keeps it alive and active and being open to reinterpretation.