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Margaret Mellis(1914-2009): Hunting for Scraps of Color

 MARGARET MELLIS: PAINTINGS AND RELIEFS
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MARGARET MELLIS: PAINTINGS AND RELIEFS. Published by: London: Austin / Desmond Fine Art

Margaret Mellis(1914-2009) is a kindred spirit of scraps and color.  Her work begins with painting, and moves into sculpture and driftwood collage, the latter which she began in her 60’s.  She describes her concern:

‘I wanted the colours to find the kind of strength which would simultaneously let them work at full strength and integrate with themselves and the shapes of the structure.’  (National Galleries Scotland)

Mellis eventually was acknowledged as at the beginnings of British Modernism and she had a Circle of artist friends at Cornwall. I remember taking a class as an undergraduate at Hampshire College called, “Mary Shelley and Her Circle” and being taken with the idea of the constellation of friends all being part of the story.

The driftwood constructions reminded me of the Laura Petrovich-Cheney exhibit I saw at the Michener in November 2015, of sculptures in wood from Superstorm Sandy.    Ian Collins describes Mellis’ materials as “combining beachcombed finds of vividly coloured bits of boats and beach-huts, kippering boards and medieval timbers gouged by deathwatch beetles into honeycomb.”

The Transformed Total: Margaret Mellis’s Constructions

The Oceanic (1994) by Margaret Mellis
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The Oceanic (1994) by Margaret Mellis via Leo Reynolds on Flickr Material: Driftwood construction

Harbour by Margaret Mellis
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Harbour by Margaret Mellis via Leo Reynolds on Flickr

Harbour by Margaret Mellis
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Harbour by Margaret Mellis, detail, via Leo Reynolds on Flickr

 

An excerpt from Margaret Mellis: A Life in Colour


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