Painter
You could say that becoming an artist was Melody's destiny, and you would be right. Here’s the thing – her mother, a college art student, married her father, who was her mother's art professor. Growing up in a mid-century modern home in Arlington, VA, which Melody's father designed, she was surrounded by the arts in many forms. A typical day at her house would find her father in his study playing the violin and guitar, singing, sketching, or creating in one way or another. Melody's mother was in the living room, almost always standing over one watercolor painting or another. Melody might have been sewing, playing piano, writing, or making 3-D gifts for her friends.
Melody grew up hearing about atmospheric perspective, values, cool and warm, light and shade, form, contrast, and mostly composition. She was encouraged to use her time creating in one way or another. She was never allowed a paint-by-number set. Create she did. Melody studied classical piano for 12 years, becoming internationally rated by the Music Teachers Guild. She also played the guitar, made her own clothes, refinished and repurposed furniture, and learned to finish carpentry. Melody wrote poems and an award-winning essay. She did everything but paint. She had no interest in painting for much of her life. However, she absorbed it.
Then, one day, at age 59, long after her parents were deceased, she decided to take a 3-hour course on acrylic painting at an art gallery “just for fun.” She was hooked. There is a book by Elizabeth Gilbert called “Big Magic” in which she describes that moment when a creative idea that has been dancing around in the universe and the person who has been waiting to discover it comes together. That’s how it was for Melody. She never even knew she could draw, but the colors, composition, brush strokes, and perspective somehow made sense. Since that very moment of revelation, Melody has felt her parents painting through her. It is one of the ties that bind her to them.
Melody feverishly began painting using acrylics and spent some time exploring the medium of gouache. However, she is in love with the vibrancy of oil paints. She loves the freedom of oil painting – moving the paint around on the canvas, watching a painting come to life with just a few highlights or dabs of the brush. Melody loves the texture of oil paintings, being able to use a brush or palette knife, to create a painting with identifiable strokes that catch the light in varying ways. One of the most significant gifts of painting is seeing all of the details, the colors within the colors, the light, and the artistry in nature that escaped her in the past. Melody's hikes and drives often take longer now, as she is constantly capturing all the glorious scenes around her.
Melody lives in New Hampshire, surrounded by four children and eight grandchildren. She describes her life as active, exciting, and blessed.
Website: https://melodywigginartist.com/