Making art and the Brain

Why does making art make me feel so good? After a painting session, I feel wonderfully stimulated and as if parts of my brain

The 2022 Holiday Show

This evening is the opening reception for the 2022 Parsons Gallery of the West Holiday Show and I have been busy making small

Chickens!

I love chickens but I can’t keep them anymore because I am squeamish about slaughtering them, but that won’t keep

Commissioned painting “The Edge of Understanding”

During the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, I started and completed my first real commissioned piece of art, an oil I

Brushes with greatness

Even though I have a trove of brushes, sorted by handle length, there are certain brushes that I gravitate toward over the las

Big Landscape

About once a year I manage to complete a large-format landscape, and this year, I have finished just in time to let it dry and

Small landscape

“Houses Below the Mesa,” oil on panel by Melwell, 9×12 Available at Parsons Gallery of the West on Kit Carson

Paint drying on a few church paintings

Through the autumn I’ve been working on a series of paintings of the old Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Taos, New Mexic

New pieces drying

A couple of pieces have been in the works for a while, leaning against the wall or hanging, unframed and unvarnished on the wa

Color opposites are amped in autumn

Orange and turquoise! Yellow and purple! The very air is abuzz with all the rod and cone snapping of color opposites in the fa