MelanieJoy

Online Store "In this poem, Blake portrays the concepts of the return to innocence from experience."  This resonated with my very soul when I read the poem and the meaning behind it.   Something I never expected when I became an artist, is the journey.  There have been so many hills and valleys, so much learning, and unlearning.  And at every moment of revelation, I am always hope to find myself back to the innocence of beginning as an artist. This painting represents that dream to innocence, but I didn't know it at the time. It felt like a new adventure as I was painting it, just like when I picked up my first brush. A Dream by William Blake   Once a dream did weave a shade O'er my Angel-guarded bed, That an Emmet lost its way Where on grass methought I lay. Troubled, wildered, and forlorn, Dark, benighted, travel-worn, Over many a tangle spray, All heart-broke, I heard her say: "Oh my children! do they cry, Do they hear their father sigh? Now they look abroad t

Hold Me In The Dark oil on canvas I have many paintings on the go right now, ones I even started before this one.  But sometimes, you just have to sit down to some Enya, your favourite colours, and paint something. Whatever happens. And it felt so good to disappear into this one.  I will get a better photo in the future to replace that shine on the left side.

untitled oil on canvas board It's just a small painting, but it commemorates my first session of painting since the summer of 2019. We spent 3 months in Boston, USA and then a few near family over Christmas back in Canada.  Then mid January we went to Switzerland for 3 months, with plans to see so much on Europe.... So not a lot of painting got done, and not a lot of sight seeing either... Then a pandemic broke out and we realized we might be staying a bit. And we were right! I am posting this in August of 2020 from Switzerland - that's a heck of a lot longer than 3 months!  So we got to the business of ordering art supplies so that I may continue with my work (as if it ever feels like work!). And I painted this little nugget. It may not seem like anything fancy, but I enjoyed every moment of it's creation, and that love goes into future artwork.

(Written in 2021) I could never express how much I love this painting. I have spent many hours just staring at it, enjoying and appreciating the details, the lighting, the mood.  I painted this one during our travels around Canada with our RV. It is quite hard to do oils when you have to move your house regularly, but I felt such a drive to paint it. As I write this in 2021, I have come to recognize this one as the last painting I will ever do with pure imagination. Coming from a wellspring of childlike hope.  I do not mean to say that I will never create another painting full of magic, of awe and wonder. But I recognize that the events of the times have planted a seed in me that will always contain a grain of sand worth of sadness. And perhaps no one else will ever know, or see it, but I will know. And it breaks my heart. It's a strange process to grieve losing a part of yourself. So this painting has special significance to me, perhaps the same as my very first painting .

I painted this in the spring of 2019 with water soluble oil paint. We were living in an RV travelling around Western Canada at the time and it was hard to paint with oils. The room and storage is limited, and it takes a bit for oils to dry, so moving your house around can risk a wet painting. But this is one of two I completed while travelling.  Other Products