• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Blue Print Gallery Logo

Blue Print Gallery

  • Artists
  • Events
  • News
  • About

Melanie Parke

Artist Information
Back To Artists

Melanie Parke

Melanie Parke grew up on a small horse farm in Indiana and received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1989. Committed to expanding opportunities for fellow artists, she was instrumental in initiating several artist-in-residence programs in the national parks since 1993. She helped spear- head the residency program at The Glen Arbor Art Association in Glen Arbor, MI, and serves as chair for the Visiting Artist program at The Old Art Building in Leland, MI. She has hosted many artists from around the country at her own home-spun artist retreat at The Provincial, an artist-run exhibition and project space she created in 2005. The Philosophy of Tea is the title of her recent solo show at Kenise Barnes Fine Art, in Larchmont, New York. Melanie has been awarded Visiting Artist positions at the American Academy in Rome in 2015 and 2018. She and her artist husband, Richard Kooyman, live and work in rural Michigan.

Artist Statement

The Still Lifes

 Light is the main character in my work. I find magic in watching refractions move across a table holding just a few objects.

Composing a still life with the obvious identifiers – a bouquet, a bowl of fruit, domestic objects — what I want to give my viewer is that feeling of chasing light in a contemplative state of mind. I’m curious how light effects can make a chimera of things – a mutation – as if lifting the weight of what something is into something less knowable.

Cezanne’s idea of passing through objects is something I think about a lot. Even when the entire plane of one of my paintings is engaged in pattern, I’m going for the feeling of never-ending transparencies, passing through walls and hard surfaces, to keep the eye going, passing to the other side of a thing and to keep looking.

Interiors and garden motifs are reconstructed through ideology and memory, from halcyon days spent in island cottages and Roman villas. Flowers, which represent friendships and the women in my life, center most of my work. The presence of birds suggests curiosity and wonder, sometimes allegories of fragility, sometimes euphoria. I’m looking for visual lushness. By alternating tonal moods and vivid ornamentation I aim to convey sensations of consolation, longing and desire.

  • Photo of Rose Ibex 2022 artwork
    Rose Ibex 2022
  • Photo of Espresso Vert 2022 artwork
    Espresso Vert 2022
  • Photo of Blue Shell 2022 artwork
    Blue Shell 2022
  • Photo of Caladium 2022 artwork
    Caladium 2022
  • Photo of Goldaster 2022 artwork
    Goldaster 2022
  • Photo of Willow and Honey 2022 artwork
    Willow and Honey 2022
  • Photo of Yearling 2022 artwork
    Yearling 2022
  • Photo of Thistle Rock 2022 artwork
    Thistle Rock 2022
  • Photo of Blue Wing artwork
    Blue Wing
  • Photo of Americano artwork
    Americano
  • Photo of Anemone Tea artwork
    Anemone Tea
  • Photo of Bergamot artwork
    Bergamot
  • Photo of Orange Zest artwork
    Orange Zest
  • Photo of Blue Throat artwork
    Blue Throat
  • Photo of Midnight Supper artwork
    Midnight Supper

Primary Sidebar

ABOUT

  • About Us
  • Press
  • Blog
  • To The Trade
  • Blue Print
  • Blue Print Interiors
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

GALLERY

  • Artists
  • Events
  • News
  • Gallery
Blue Print Store Illustration

COME SEE US!

We are open Monday through Saturday 10am – 5pm

  • Blue Print
  • 2707 Fairmount Street
    Dallas, TX 75201
  • (214) 954 – 9511
  • info@blueprintstore.com
  • Blue Print Gallery
  • 2701 Fairmount Street
    Dallas, TX 75201
  • (469) 709 – 8911
  • hello@blueprint-gallery.com

© 2023 Blue Print Gallery | All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use • Privacy Policy

Photo of entryway to Blue Print featuring blue doors
DON'T MISS OUT ON THE FUN!

new artwork, new artists, upcoming gallery events, and
more from the store straight to your inbox each week!

Loading
Click to hide this popup