Mushroom Reef 2 - Mornington Peninsula (diptych)

This is a diptych - two paintings making up one image
Aerial imagery has been represented through art for thousands of years. Many Indigenous artists imagined themselves hovering over the land observing both the natural and metaphysical forms or markings of the landscape. More recently, drone technology has made hovering over the land a reality, making way for new expressions of the landscape to be represented in art.
This body of work, although realistic in style and intention, edges toward the boundaries of abstraction simply due to the relative unfamiliarity of its perspective. With each painting I create in this series, I am reminded that places familiar can, from a ‘birds eye view’, be rediscovered.

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Melissa Kenihan is a Melbourne based artist who lives and works in St Kilda. Since dedicating herself to full time painting in 2017, she has been a finalist in both the 2021 and 2022 Glover Prize, the 2022 John Leslie Art Prize and a semi-finalist in the 2019 Moran National Portrait Prize.

Melissa has been an artist and storyteller since childhood. Early years of drawing and painting gave way to a 20-year career as a creative, award-winning sound designer for film and television.

Her work is rooted in connection, experience, and memory, and is characterized by realism and expressive detail. It evokes a sense of time and place, and encourages viewers to explore the intriguing backstory.