Open Ground Painting

I make paintings of abstracted landscapes, symbols and figures - other realms with open ended possibilities. Paint is built up in intricate layers in search of suggestions, ambiguous scenarios or resonances with different psychological states. There is plenty of room for speculation. Work is held in public and private collections, including the Women's Art Collection at New Hall, Cambridge University and the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London. "Ambiguous shapes, plants, strange creatures and landscapes populate Melland's canvases...Her paintings are born out of an interest in exploring the sensation rather than the illusion of space as found in medieval painting and traditional Japanese picture planes...Brimming with sensation and visual energy, her work is an invitation to immerse in speculation and reverie." "” Leann Barber,