Melissa Gile is a self-taught artist working out of her home studio located in Hamburg, Germany. She grew up in Seattle and has resided in Europe since 2014.
Her paintings have been exhibited in Hamburg and Berlin, with features internationally by Create! Magazine, Visionary Art Collective, The Curator’s Salon, The Purposeful Mayonnaise, CandyFloss Magazine, and more.
Through her work, Gile explores her emotional relationship with home and living her dream from across the world. Inspired by impressionist, abstract, and surrealist styles, she incorporates themes from nature and fantasy in her works to facilitate a romantic sense of bliss in her dreamscapes.
Collect Melissa's work through PxP Contemporary.
What inspired you to create the work you showcased in the 'Chroma' exhibition?
"A Mermaid’s Home” was inspired by my drive to turn everyday moments into something enchanting. In this painting, I was specifically inspired by the view of the full moon from my night walks, which has seemed to be a constant in my life throughout so many international moves.
After spending a decade as a kind of global nomad, I used to love the feeling of romance that I would get when arriving at a new city or discovering something novel in another area. I still love it, yet at some point, I knew I needed to stay in one place for a longer period. When we decide to put down roots like this it can be challenging to see the world through the same excited lens. We can easily take the world around us – our precious life moments – for granted. This painting seeks to capture this romantic moment staring at the moon, bringing forth a sense of wonder and enchantment for the viewer.
Can you share some insights into your creative process?
Where do you draw inspiration from when it comes to your color choices?My creative process has had a very strong focus on color – and is the starting point for every painting I make. My vision as an artist is to use my work to inspire people to have an emotional experience, and color is a fundamental tool I use for this.
I think this is the case for any artist, but as somebody who is self-taught (I have a background in engineering and business), I really appreciate every work as an opportunity to learn and intentionally explore new ways to express myself visually. In my “Dreamland” series, I purposefully painted in mostly monochrome palettes, because I wanted to explore the different associations I had with each color. For instance, in the entire triptych “A Mermaid’s Home” I initially explored the sadness I associated with the color blue, letting myself throw paint onto the canvas almost as if letting out tears. Each painting in this series represents me working through some sort of emotion like this with color being the inspiring medium.
How did your medium of choice enhance your ability to convey the color in your artwork?
I use acrylic paints from Golden, which have high pigmentation and are great for working in vibrant colors. I also finish each painting with a glossy UV protective sheet, which makes the colors even more vibrant due to the refraction of the light.
What do you want viewers and collectors to know when interacting with your art?
I really want them to feel the permission to pause and get lost in my work. I put so much detail and love into each piece, because I want others to feel something like curiosity, bliss, or joy.
Recently I was exhibiting at Superfine Art Fair in Seattle where couples kept walking up to my booth, holding each other as they paused and got lost in the piece for a good minute – like sitting on the beach watching the sunset. My heart felt so full to observe this in action. In such a fast-paced world, I love inspiring people to pause and savor their own precious moments.
What are you currently working on and looking forward to this season?
Currently, I’m working on a smaller collection of three larger paintings (120cm x 120cm) which are really showstoppers in a room. They also work with color as a starting point, this time exploring the relativity of color, which essentially means the way colors in combination affect the way we perceive them. I find this a fun and moving way to culminate the work I’ve done in “Dreamland” and am very much looking forward to exhibiting these in person.
