Let’s Make Arrangements! Still Life Setups to Success.
Melanie will present various approaches to setting up Still Life, the most versitile and fundamental subject. Whether you are an abstract or representational painter, the practice and discipline of still life will improve your overall skills so that your visual statement is clear. Melanie is a contemporary representational studio painter. Her subject, primarily still life, is influenced by contemporary life and our natural Cape Cod surroundings. To learn more about her and her work,
visit www.melaniechartier.com
Growing up in New Bedford, Massachusetts, she enjoyed exposure to music, dance, drama and fine art. She has identified with the creative spirit since her earliest memories. Focusing on painting, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from Southeastern Massachusetts University (now UMASS-Dartmouth) and a Master of Fine Art degree from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. After living and painting in the Chicago area for many years, she moved with her husband and daughter to Cape Cod and began to rediscover my roots. Being primarily a still life painter, she is drawn to objects as a muse. Using these objects allows me to explore a range of themes, from the seasons to vanities to autobiographical and narrative vignettes.
In regard to using shells as her subject, living on Cape Cod it is difficult to avoid being influenced by the natural surroundings. Here, ordinary shells become icons. The natural thing to do is to use them as subject matter. Doing so has anchored her and my work here for now.
She is represented by Chatham Fine Art, Chatham,MA