Melody Hawtin

“My work reflects a colorful life,” the English artist Melody Hawtin says about her paintings. And color — reds and yellows, pastel shades of violet and pink, the almost translucent blue of sea and sky — becomes a central feature of her canvases. Many moods are conjured up by the way shades are juxtaposed. Soft bands of color will elicit mist or clouds. Muted browns and greens will bring bright colors down to earth, or subtle differences in tone will be used to give a powerful sense of depth and dimension to impressionistic scenes. Hawtin also communicates a variety of emotions through the ways in which she applies paint to the canvas. Drips and swirls of paint give these works a strongly physical feel. Brushstrokes often undulate gently, while at other times they hurtle across the canvas with volcanic energy. “The bigger picture is important to me,” Hawtin adds, and the distinctive use of color and space in her paintings give the natural world a glow that is at once spiritual and highly physical.