Louise Mellon's art will make you smile and inspire you with cheerfulness and vibrant color. Her subjects range from equine, canine and feline to polo, whimsey, mixed media, encaustic and dioramas. She also makes one-of-a-kind pieces from found objects, as well as acrylics and oil pastel. Have fun and a chuckle with Louise's creativity and humor.
About the artist:
Louise came from a family of artists and was encouraged and mentored by them from an early age. The request for a watercolor paint box was the ultimate bribe when she was ordered to sit still at age four for a photographic portrait. The formal portrait clearly shows the gleaming fifty cent piece she was rolling in her fingers that was for the purchase of a most cherished prize.
She grew up painting and riding and driving horses in Middleburg, Virginia, and now paints from her studio in Aiken, South Carolina. She also breeds Connemara ponies, and is on the Board of the Aiken Center of the Arts where she helps entice notables in the arts to Aiken to share their knowledge with others.
Her unusual paintings are always looked forward to at shows, and once buyers become collectors of her work, they are treated to extra gifts of works and discounts on future pieces.
Louise credits her family, her participation in many workshops, and courses taken at the University of South Carolina Aiken for the courage to do art that is different and frequently unexpected.
This work is inspired by a beautiful Andalusian and rider I saw perform at the Windsor Horse Show at Windsor Castle a few years ago. Such concentration and grace on the part of both that it just had to become a painting. This one is oil pastel on 24" x 32" canvas.
I have to let the paint rest a day or two before I can make further corrections as the upper layers are very soft and my oil pastel sticks will move the under layers instead of going over the top of them. So, on to another one. I have a show coming up here in Aiken in February and am under the gun to produce several more new works that have not been exhibited at this venue. I really like working in the kitchen, and I can't wait to get into my new space that is being added onto the south side of the kitchen. It will be sunny and cheerful with ceilings high enough that I don't bump my head! I have set the production bar high to make sure I deserve this wonderful new space, and I'm obligated to do my very best work and plenty of it!
Here is the start of a new piece in oil pastel. It's 36" x 48", a really large piece. It was too big for my attic space and low ceilings, so I moved my good easel down to the kitchen, got Marguaritaville playing on my laptop for cheerfulness, and it's coming along. I was inspired by the recent fall steeplechase races here in Aiken, on the backside near the start, as many of the riders let their horses go up to and see the first fence. This jockey had such a look of confidence in his horse, and joy in his job, that I knew I had to do a painting of the pair.
