Featured Artist Melinda Patrick

Enjoy the charming portfolio of painter Melinda Patrick, who captures the sunny side of life with her brush. See more by visiting her website.

 

 

My entire family was very supportive of my art endeavors. My grandfather, also a painter, pushed me into it. The summer before I graduated high school, my mother let me invite my friends over to paint a wall of my bedroom any way we wanted. Her only regret was the black paint we used because it was hard to cover when she repainted the room.

 

 

In high school I attended the Houston Museum of Fine Art class and had encouraging teachers in my junior and senior high school art classes. My junior high teacher brought in a student from PE class every week to sit so I could draw a portrait in chalk pastels. She gave me a booth in the annual school festival fundraiser just to do portraits in chalk.

 

 

I stopped painting to raise my kids, earning a living as a graphic and web designer with illustration on the side. After the kids were grown, I started back painting just to have art for the walls of a house we were building. Soon after, I became a lending library of paintings for my kids.

 

 

I shoot thousands of photos everywhere I go. I look through them constantly to determine if any should become a painting and if so, what should the focus be?

 

 

It took me awhile to realize that photos don’t completely tell the story I want to tell. After laying out the image, I put the photo away and paint what I want to see.

 

 

I gravitate towards heavy color and bright hues. I sketch the painting with a heavy, dark outline. Then I build the shapes using just about any color of paint that’s handy. Those base colors will be covered over in many layers of paint. Then the fun begins as I flesh out the shapes. And last, I add any detail it needs to finish, making sure I don’t overpaint.

 

 

I have two studios. One is in a pine forest and one in the Texas Hill country. I zone out with music and solitude except for my two studio dogs who alert me to any cars or deer going past. I grew up in a big city, went to college in a big city, but I’d love to live in a beach area, so I paint a lot of beach imagery.

 

 

Every one of my collectors buy my art for the good feeling they get from it. My art is never gloomy or political, just something hopeful or inspiring: eye candy.

 

 

I welcome commissions. Most popular are house portraits. Having an artist’s interpretation of a home or place you love or miss is a treasure. I have also taken commissions for places and one for a portrait of a lady I’d never seen.

 

Melinda Patrick invites you to follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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