INSIDE CORNWALL - JULY 2003

MELANIE'S CANVASES FILLED WITH JOY

A great deal has happened to artist Melanie McDonald in the four years it has taken to complete her part-time Fine Art degree at Falmouth College of Arts.  Soon after she started the course in 1999 she discovered she was pregnant with her daughter Skye - who has since become an integral part of her work - and two years ago she opened Pydar Gallery in Truro as a place to exhibit her work.

"I started the degree first and the gallery followed, as a way of showing and selling the work I was producing.  As the gallery premises was originally two cottages knocked into one, I use the downstairs rooms for a permanent show of my work and upstairs for a changing exhibition of invited artists," explains Melanie.

Having a child at that particular point in her life proved to be pivotal to Melanie's painting practice, culminating in an ongoing and developing joint project between mother and daughter for Melanie's degree show.

Although Melanie had always (and continues) to draw figures, particularly nudes, the sheer joy of having a new baby meant that the child came to dominate the content of paintings.

"My first paintings of Skye were small portraits; and so large was the baby's presence in my life that every inch of canvas was filled with her!  Then, as Skye discovered toys, they also began to appear in the paintings.  Later the subject expanded to her immediate environment and included her father.  Recently the work has expanded into a new and inspiring direction; a collaboration between mother and daughter."

Melanie uses photographs to capture special times spent together, Skye's first steps, Skye on a swing, - which are also analogous for time passing - time spent with her Dad, hand in hand in the snow, on his shoulders, all profound moments in time which might otherwise be forgotten or ignored.  Her paintings are then appropriated from these photographs.

"For practical reasons, as well as for pleasure, Skye has always been a regular visitor to my studio," continues Melanie.

"She has always been encouraged to make marks on canvas, using all the wonderful techniques that children use, finger painting, scribbling or dripping.  The results were predictably wonderful and I often felt that Skye's work was more interesting than my own.  My solution was to combine the two styles, my particular and considered paintings matched against her more gestural and emotional mark-making."

The resulting dialogue between the two works of art is sometimes on separate panels, sometimes with Skye's childish marks integrated within Melanie's Paintings.

Melanie's entire collection of work from her degree course will be on view at Pydar Gallery in Truro throughout the summer.