Painted head, 2023

This painting was done by direct observation in the ‘alla prima’ style. Presently, in my practice, I am exploring mark-making using different tools and colour palettes to create paintings that are strong and expressive. In this work, I was keen to paint the strength and stillness of the model. His angular features and his sombre gaze inspired me to use a limited palette and directional impasto marks to paint a head portrait that is strong and still.

Born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and now based in Melbourne, Melanie is an oil painter and loves to paint from life. Faces, places, light patterns on objects, the human figure, and the beauty and emotion evoked by colour and light inspire her to paint.

Her work is bold and expressive, and she uses a range of tools and a colourist palette to portray the subject in a painterly manner.

Her work has been exhibited in group shows in Australia, and she was a finalist in the Still Life Prize at TACIT Galleries in 2021, a finalist in the Southern Buoys Studio Portrait Prize in 2020 and 2019, and a portrait prize finalist at the Cambridge Studio Gallery Portrait Prize in 2017 and 2015.