The work is a response to my environment, the places in and around which I live the everyday; the new that has become the familiar...I am interested in the overlooked, incidental forms in nature.
The array of artistic techniques that Melanie Goemans utilises so masterfully in her work is driven by her academic grounding in art history and her continued investigation of different mediums. The resulting artwork portrays Goemans’ exceptional technical prowess and her interest in exploring the transient beauty of the everyday that exists in nature and her immediate surroundings.
Melanie Goemans studied Florentine Renaissance art at The Courtauld Institute of Art and Fine Art at the University of Gloucestershire, followed by teaching and taking up art residencies in Cheltenham, Devon & London before settling in her current studio in the cathedral city of Ely. The wide, flat fens of the surrounding countryside influence the style and subject matter of her work. The soft, atmospheric tones of her paintings are slowly rendered with broad strokes and delicate brushwork onto a smooth gesso surface. Out of the diffused light, deep shadows or highlights with gold & silver leaf are used by Goemans to define and reflect elements. In this way, she uses age-old materials and techniques in painting and printmaking to create muted, modern depictions of the natural world and to draw us into a timeless one.
Melanie Goemans has exhibited in group and solo shows across the UK including at the Jerwood Space, Bridgeman Gallery, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, Jaggedart, Thompson's City Gallery, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, Florence Trust, Quercus Gallery, Josie Eastwood Fine Art, Stratford Gallery, and Cornwall Contemporary. Her work is held in corporate and private collections in the UK and overseas and has recently been selected for the National Open Art Competition; the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition; and the John Moores Painting Prize.
