Melanie returned to Polynesia in 1999 after a hiatus of 20 years. Born in the USA, her adventuresome spirit had already led her to live in India, France, and Morocco before she discovered the magic of the Polynesian islands in 1979. From then on she was consumed by a passion to return and live here. As all dreams are potentially reality, Melanie achieved her heart’s desire, and has been living and painting on the island of Huahine. After two successful exhibits of her pen and ink drawings during her initial sojourn, she had continued to maintain a portfolio of her work at the Winkler Gallery. In the spring of 2000 she organized a solo show in the City Hall of Papeete with over 60 paintings, entitled “Return to Paradise: 20 years later”. It was the follow up to a solo show in the Dodge House Gallery of the Providence Art Club, Providence Rhode Island, and entitled “A Painter in Paradise” which announced her departure for the South Seas. Since then her work has been exhibited in more than a dozen galleries, shops, and restaurants in the principal Society Islands: Tahiti, Raiatea, Taha’a, Bora Bora and Huahine. Her exhibit in February 2003 at Au Chevalet was her first solo gallery exhibit in Polynesia. The critics raved about her still lifes, saying that her hunger for the place she loved was apparent in the voluptuous treatment of her fruits, which look as if they could be plucked from the canvas. Her landscapes and portraits have also drawn praise and admiration, and found their way into notable collections. “She fell in love with this land and its inhabitants; she loves the contrasts, the light, and the clair obscurs…. This symbiosis of nature and light is expressed in many of Melanie’s works, where one notably finds Polynesian scenes such as vahines in outrigger canoes, portraits, scenes from daily life….What is remarkable about Melanie is that she isn’t content just to reproduce the nature of Polynesia by laying it on her canvases: she sublimates it.” Melanie has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Denison University, Granville, Ohio. She has also studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts of Aix-en-Provence, and the Rhode Island School of Design. She is a member of the Taylor Foundation for the Arts, in Paris. She has exhibited in Fez, Agadir and Marrakech, Morocco; Marseille and Pont Aven, France; and in the New England region--notably in Boston, Providence and Newport. Melanie’s studio/gallery-- “ ’Umatatea”--in Huahine is open to the public. A warm welcome greets all visitors who stop by to have a look. Her work is available in the following galeries: Copyright © PolynesiaPaintings.com |