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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Artist's Statement
Although I love grand vistas and beautiful views, it is the more intimate landscape that thrills me the most. Light makes the statement, colors add magic, and composition clinches the fullness of the experience of a particular place and a particular time where only I have been.
I am beginning to work in series, for no single glimpse of a place can tell the whole story, or should. As I explore the same concepts time and again my understanding of a quiet world deepens, as does my love for it.
I am drawn to patterns and textures—the swirl of dead grasses, the roughness of bark, slippery water, flickering shadows. Attempting to communicate what I have seen and felt is a paradox in that I paint for myself, to re-experience the moment, yet people often comment to me that they’ve been there or felt that before. It is gratifying to be able to share with others these gifts from our amazing world.
Pastel is my medium of choice for its vibrant color. I find it less likely for my color to look muddy and featureless when working in pastel--instead it looks alive. Since pastels are simply ground up pigments, mixing color with pastels is, figuratively speaking, like scattering granules of one color with granules of another, leaving each to continue to reflect the light in its own distinct fashion. Because pastels are a dry medium, pastel paintings don’t change with age so I can leave a painting for an hour, a day, a year and go back to it whenever I want.
My pastel box contains somewhere between 150 and 200 half-sticks or pieces of pastel when I’m out painting in the field. I can quickly grab colors to capture a fleeting light effect or a moving cloud, which makes plein air work so enjoyable.
The landscape where I live in southwest New Mexico is primarily rolling grassy foothills backed by lofty mountains. A creek lined by cottonwoods and willows runs about 200 yards from my studio.
I will never run out of painting subjects!
Thanks for visiting my website gallery. Please contact me for information about available paintings.
Melody Sears
Shows and Exhibitions
Grant County Art Guild, “The West and Beyond,” 26th Annual Purchase Prize Show, Pinos Altos NM, September 20 – October 2, 2011.
American Plains Artists, “Art of the Plains,” 27th Annual Juried Exhibit & Sale, New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, Las Cruces NM, September 9 – October 30, 2011.
Roswell Fine Arts League, Roswell NM, “Enchantment,” 28th Annual International Juried Art Show, August 18-28, 2011.
Cutter Gallery, Las Cruces NM, “My Las Cruces Art Show” 10-artist gallery show, March 19 – May 1, 2011.
Tucson Pastel Society's Exhibition and Sale for SAAVI, the Southern Arizona Association for the Visually Impaired. October 21 to January 5, 2011 at the SAAVI Gallery, 3767 E. Grant Road, Tucson AZ
"The Spirit of Place" Show, the annual juried exhibition of the Plein Air Painters of New Mexico, October 9 - November 14, 2010 at the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, NM.
Mountain Oyster Club, Tucson AZ, Annual Contemporary Western Art Show, November 21, 2009 – January 2, 2010.
Percha Creek Traders, Hillsboro NM, “A Hillsboro Year” one-woman show, November 14 – December 6, 2009.
Percha Creek Traders, Hillsboro NM, quarterly gallery shows, 2007 – 2009
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"A particle of pastel pigment seen under a microscope resembles a diamond with many facets. Therefore, pastel paintings reflect light like a prism. No other medium has the same power of color or stability. Properly framed, pastel paintings are one of the most permanent media.”
(from the Pastel Society of New Mexico 2006 15th Annual National Pastel Painting Exhibition Catalog)
