Nature is an enduring force within the imagination of Los Angeles-based painter Melinda Braathen. Her psychologically charged paintings explore the experience of landscape, where the material and the energetic interplay. For Braathen, drawing from nature is a way of bridging myriad elements in a single, unified space: a way to body forth a reality of the world that is often far stranger and more alive then our best thoughts can reach, while simultaneously addressing its frightening unpredictability and constantly shifting essence.
Engaged in close observation of the natural world, Braathen builds up the surface of her paintings with variegated gestural marks that bring out the recognizable qualities of the painted subject while ushering in a deeper sensitivity to the environment’s elemental and energetic forces. Small brush strokes suggest impermanence and an atmospheric quality of ever-changing states. The environments Braathen creates often feel like they could break open or shift at any moment. Mysterious light heightens the drama of the works and further evokes enigmatic and unseen energies. These features melt and meld, contrasted by opaquely painted surfaces that add stability, duetting more closely with representation. Thus, the planes of vibrant, bold color and brushstrokes spill across the canvas, partly framed by a few stable structures that cannot hold back the bold and powerful energies.
In addition to the natural environments, Braathen often paints figures into her compositions — people she is both inspired by and knows personally. The artist initially renders these people in their representative form, and gradually transforms them into a more energetic state. Presence, embodiment, emotions, and sensations are expressed through the artist’s color palette, abstract visual language, and distinctive textures. As such, the figures appear tied to the rhythms of nature in and around them.
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