MH 32 Painting by Melissa Herrington

ABOUT THE ARTIST // Melissa Herrington is a contemporary abstract artist currently living and working in Los Angeles, California. She has called Southern California home since 2005 where she received her MFA from Otis College of Art and Design. Prior to that, she spent most of her early career in Atlanta, Georgia and has a BFA from Florida State University. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally. IN HER WORDS // "My paintings are representative of my path, which is inspired by adventure and independence, and my love of color and texture. For me travel is a major catalyst for my evolving themes and artistic practice. In all my works color and shape are both organic, intuitive and feminine." ABOUT THE WORK // Herrington creates large-scale, gestural paintings that are built up through layers of paint on canvas overlaid with mark-making using graphite, charcoal and pigments. Herrington’s recent paintings explore the complexities of transformation. Each work functions as both an individual entity and as a part of a larger theme. Herrington explores spontaneous marks and subtle forms through abstraction. Recurring figural motifs repeat throughout the paintings, acting as a sort of visual vocabulary, a secret language. Layers are fundamental to her imagery and process, infusing each work with multiple surfaces. Loosely sketched forms blend into whites and grays, contrasted by whole abstracted fields, as colors exhale forth an intimate narrative. Floating colors and unsteady shapes blend on the surface of spilling muted tones and marks are meticulously irregular appearing as though left unintentionally by a trace. At the heart of Herrington's artistic practice is an unmistakable relationship between distilled color and form. Standing before a singular canvas in this series, one is immediately drawn in by a strong and powerful feeling of transformation. As contoured shapes emerge from the abstract, the viewer is witness to form unfolding, creating new visual possibilities, evoking a sense of wonder.