Melissa Gates
Painting

Artist Statement

I began painting as a hobby in 2015. As I experimented, I discovered an innate ability to express my love of nature with precision and depth. I strive to create pieces that capture close-up beauty with an impressionistic style. Drama and emotion are expressed by juxtaposing an absence of color with intense color. Stippling is used to create an illusion of deep detail, while layers of pigment coax the image off of the canvas. I want the viewer to feel the sensations of the environment as well as the tactile nature of the subject. My compositions portray fleeting encounters with nature - that moment when you chance upon an animal in its natural state or an instant in the ancient and incomprehensible lifespan of a tree.