Process
I love colour and use colour in context to make the subjects in my paintings pop.
Meli Axford enjoys painting people and places; her work is inspired by her own life experiences. She wants to evoke feelings of happiness, thankfulness and safety through her painting. She explores positive aspects of the “idyllic” Australian lifestyle in an aspirational way.
Each composition is designed in photoshop from several photographs because it isn't possible to get the kids and pets all in the same shot at the same time. During this phase, she decides on the background colour for the finished work.
With the base colour selected, Meli then designs the palette to work off that colour. Her objective is to create beautiful colours that work together to give the impression of movement. She often uses tetradic schemes, deriving all of the colours in the palette from three tube colours she chooses to go with the base colour.
She'll then start by painting the figures and finish with the landscape. Her aim with the landscape is to retain the "right" amount of negative space - which is a characteristic of her painting style.
Sometimes there isn't much landscape added - it depends on the work and when it feels right to stop. For some compositions, Meli will use the same initial photos but change the base colour, and therefore the palette or leave less negative space.
Her recent success as a finalist in the Byron Art Magazine Art Prize 2020 and again in the Lethbridge Small Works Art Award 2021, has given her confidence to experiment further through the continuation of this pool series and refine her signature technique that explores vibrant colour and negative space. Her ultimate goal is to achieve a sustainable arts practice that documents her Australian lifestyle.
Painted on professionally prepared artists boards - either 1/8 or 1/4 thick very smooth beechwood mounted on a cradle. Each board is primes with 3 coats of acrylic gesso, sanded after each coat to ensure a good bond to the board. I like to finish each board with vertical brush strokes which leaves a textured finish to work with in the painting. For works on canvas, Meli has her canvases professionally prepared by 2C Creatives in Murwillumbah and applies 2 additional coats of a good quality gesso before starting her acrylic layer.
Design
Each composition starts with a photo shoot and the photographs are then worked into a design that expresses her intentions. Meli then completes a detailed sketch of the figures in the work before drawing the design on the canvas/board and transferring her sketches over. Each painting starts as a combination of sketches, drawings, photos and illustrator vectors worked up into the design. She usually paints the figures in first and then fills out the remaining detail until she feels it is done!
Palette Design
Once she has selected the colour for the acrylic background, Meli then designs the foreground palette to make sure it all pops.
