South African born Melissa has always had a love of nature and capturing this in a variety of ways. Over the past 20 years she has dabbled in all sorts of artistic mediums from Oil paint, Photography, Sketching, Water colour, Alcohol ink and various sculpting mediums.
Becoming an Apiarist a few years ago prompted an exploration of the ancient art of Encaustic painting. In using hot beeswax as a base medium, she found a way to combine structure and randomness by incorporating various layers of sketching, painting and sculpting into one piece.
Living in the Perth Hills provides Melissa with endless subjects and inspiration for botanical art. “I find Native flora in particular fascinating, ugly and gnarly on the surface at times with such delicate beauty and robust determination to survive, somewhat reflecting us humans.”