CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Melissa Boughey

*News Update*
Congratulations to Melissa Boughey who has been announced as a finalist in the 2021 Muswellbrook Art Prize with her painting 'Tree Symphony'.

Melissa Boughey’s painting practice speaks of a life lived on the land and an intimate connection with both the wild and tamed landscapes formed through her close daily interactions working on her farm and her commitment to revegetating native habitat. Ocean swims, walking the dog, and drawing plein-air in the rich paperbark wetlands a stones throw from her studio make up some of her deeply resonant experiences of landscape. Melissa’s loose plein air drawings allow the viewer a glimpse into the artists working process and provide a visual clue to some of the shapes and forms that emerge in her resulting paintings.

Beginning with the artist’s immersion within the landscape - jotting notes; scribbling responses; creating a shorthand code for the natural environment - experimentation and play are paramount to the intuitive process of her paintings. Through mark-making, colour play, and a sense of integrity toward materials and surfaces, her visceral works in oil and hand-made beeswax mediums are allowed to develop of their own accord until a final, resolved memory of a landscape emerges.

Boughey completed a Bachelor of Arts at Curtin University in 1994 before moving to Southern WA where she and her family run a small farm vineyard and cellar door. In the last decade Melissa has focused on her arts practice, holding many group and solo exhibitions, as well as being selected finalist in a number of national shows including the Muswellbrook Art Prize (2021, 2019), The Paul Guest Prize for Drawing (2016), Kogarah Art Prize (2015), Albany Art Prize (2015), Lloyd Rees Landscape Prize (2015) & Fleurieu Art Prize (2011) amongst others.

She currently works from her home studio, overlooking pristine rehabilitated wetlands, and takes inspiration from her immediate surroundings. She exhibits regularly in Melbourne, Sydney and regional Western Australia. Her work is held in the Busselton Health Service, Mental Health Unit, WA, The Office of the Public Sector, Government of Western Australia and private collections in Australia, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and France.

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Media Highlights

Transient 2 (with hot pink and bloodroot) 2019
local pigment and oil on linen
204cm x 190cm
$9,900 AUD

Forest Path (take a hike) 2019
oil and beeswax on canvas
100cm x 140cm
$4,500 AUD

Biodiversity (natural habitat) 2019
mixed media on 300gsm Arches paper, framed
57cm x 90cm
$2,200 AUD

Spotty Gum and Stripey (chasing shadows) 2019
oil and beeswax on canvas, framed
100cm x 90cm
$3,300 AUD

First Spring (Djilba Season) 2020
oil on canvas
70cm x 70cm in artist's studio
$2,500 AUD

Wetlands 1,2,3 2020
mixed media on paper
21cm x 29cm IN ARTIST'S STUDIO
$800 AUD

Terrain 2020
oil on linen
45cm x 30cm IN ARTIST'S STUDIO
$950 AUD

Cascade 2020
oil on linen
35cm x 35cm IN ARTIST'S STUDIO
$950 AUD

Midnight Feelings (evening glow, wetlands) 2020
oil on board, framed
40cm x 40cm
$950 AUD

Dappled Light (studio symphony) 2020
oil on board
30cm x 30cm
$690 AUD

Wetlands (peripheral view) 2020
oil on board, framed
20cm x 50cm
$790 AUD

Fringe Country (Wrong Turn) 2019
oil and beeswax on canvas
120cm x 140cm
IN ARTIST'S STUDIO
$5,500 AUD