May '11s Featured Artist - Melody Cleary

Melody's Palette

When did you realize you loved art and wanted to be ‘an artist’?
I was very inspired when I won first place in my grade school art competition and again in a high school competition. My mother found a local art center and I enrolled in drawing and oil painting classes during high school. It was not to be that I would attend art school or get an art degree, but I knew art would be a life long interest and so I moonlighted taking art classes whenever I could. When I retired in 2000, I spent years seriously practicing and developing until I realized my 'style' and produced a body of work.
Who has been the greatest influence from your past to mentor you to this career?
First, I would say, my mother. She knew I had a gift and she supplied me with the tools to practice it. Next, I would say my father who was a talented drawer of designs in the granite and marble industry. I would draw next to him at the kitchen table. In his retirement, he took up oil painting as a hobby and had a love of nature and landscape, as do I. He was always interested in my work and what I was producing next, though, he really didn't look at it as a business or career.
Who is your mentor today, or another artist you admire and why?
My critique group is very important to me. Many of us come from a local art co-op and have been meeting monthly for a few years now. A few have B.A.s in Art or Art History, one is a traveled career art teacher, and others are hobbyists. As well as sharing friendship, we share input on each others work and I always gain insight on whatever I'm working on. We have viewed some art videos, and California artist Robert Burridge is a big influence on me to loosen up and get creative. And the colors! I surely became a colorist - it just speaks to me. Other current artists who's work inspires me are Dale Witherow (WA), Ellen Dittebrandt (OR), Lynn Boggess, Kathleen Earthrowl, and Kentree Speirs (OR), just to name a few.
What is your favorite surface to paint on? Describe it if you make it yourself.
I work mostly on stretched gallery canvas, 1.5" depth, with a medium or smooth tooth....no framing is required. I've also worked on gessoed watercolor paper.
What brand of paints do you use?
Liquitex and Golden acrylics, mostly.
Do you have a favorite color palette?
I have a variety of yellows, reds and blues....phthalo blue, manganese blue, cad orange, any medium and light yellow, pyrrole red, naphthol red light, yellow ochre and white. I'll add some alizarin crmson or dark green to mix up dark darks. For a brilliant orange, I'll use some Holbein Luminous Opera. I've often used this and yellow to make a brilliant background for nature scapes.
What is your favorite color in your closet?
Chartreuse. It's earthy, yet brilliant.
What subject appears the most in your paintings and why?
Elements of nature...especially water. I never tire of the patterns created by moving water....sends me into the abstract which is where I want to venture. Though not produced frequently, I also like the collage figuratives I've done and hope to do more - the variations in papers and textures is so enjoyable.
How often do you paint? How many hours a week?
It varies greatly. Currently, about 12 hrs a week. I am a bit restricted by physical limitations right at the moment that I want to go bigger, so I've been producing more small works lately.
How would you like to be remembered?
I would like to be remembered as a successful colorist who put the 'wow' factor in her paintings, both realistic and abstract. One who created a mood with color that really speaks to people of her love of nature, the earth and it's tremendous color & textures.
Melody Cleary

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Getting Personal

What color sheets are on your bed right now?
A muted, earthy green.
What book are you reading this week?
Nothing to Envy - Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
Do you have a favorite television show?
Doc Martin
What is your favorite food?
Vietnamese
What are you most proud of in your life?
Raising a son who's a really good person in this world. And that I helped him begin his pursuit of becoming a musician.....drumming is his passion as art is my passion.
Who would you love to interview?
My mother, if she was still here.
Who would you love to paint?
Someone old.....old people have real stories to tell.
Share something with us that few people know about you.
I have had a physical disability since I was very young called Charcot Marie Tooth disease. It's a very strange name unknown to most people, is slowly progressive, and is the factor in my painting hours now. It has made me a very tenacious person.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?
Somewhere in the US Southwest - warm, dry, brilliant sun and colors.
Any other thoughts to share?
No - I need to paint now :-)

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