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Bumping Into Ghosts No. 1 | Oil And Acrylic Painting in Paintings by Melanie Biehle

Bumping Into Ghosts No. 1 | Oil And Acrylic Painting in Paintings by Melanie Biehle

Bumping Into Ghosts No. 1 | Oil And Acrylic Painting in Paintings by Melanie Biehle

Bumping Into Ghosts No. 1 | Oil And Acrylic Painting in Paintings by Melanie Biehle

Bumping Into Ghosts No. 1 | Oil And Acrylic Painting in Paintings by Melanie Biehle

Created and Sold by Melanie Biehle

Melanie Biehle

Bumping Into Ghosts No. 1 - Paintings

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ORIGINAL PAINTING HAS BEEN SOLD

“Sometimes I see her breeze by carrying a yoga mat. I catch a glimpse of her on an escalator. I think that was her trying on clothes at Anthropologie. She passes by too fast for me to recognize which one of her I saw. Sometimes when I see her I say a silent, “thank you” - for creating, walking, and living the winding paths that made me “me.”

This is the last paragraph of an essay that I wrote in 2013 — “Bumping Into Ghosts”. It was published in The Equals Record. (Message me if you’d like to read the entire essay.)

This concept is the basis of a new ongoing abstract painting collection — Bumping Into Ghosts. My series in progress explores the theme of the many different versions of ourselves that we become in our lifetime. The walls we tear down and rebuild. Layers of lives that we live.

BUMPING INTO GHOSTS NO. 1
20x16 inches oil on wood panel

Item Bumping Into Ghosts No. 1

Created by Melanie Biehle

As seen in Private Residence, Seattle, WA

Melanie Biehle

Meet the Creator

Melanie Biehle

Wescover creator since 2019

I want my art to feel like I feel when I’m on vacation.

Melanie Biehle creates atmospheric abstract paintings inspired by travel and place.

The artist grew up in rural Louisiana and has lived on the west coast for most of her adult life. She currently lives in the Seattle area with her husband, son, and pets.

Melanie became a painter in her 40s, after becoming a writer, a mother, and an interior and lifestyle photographer. Before that, she lived and worked in Los Angeles as a film marketer and optioned her romantic comedy screenplay.

The artist received a Master’s degree in psychology and later studied abstract painting and composition at Gage Academy of Art in Seattle. Melanie lists artists Richard Diebenkorn, Lee Krasner, and Joan Mitchell as major inspirations.

ARTIST STATEMENT
I want my art to feel like I feel when I’m on vacation.

Spacious. Curious. Relaxed. Inspired.

I create abstract paintings that are atmospheric expressions of place. The spirit of discovery, leisure, space, and time connects us, even when we are inspired by different locales.

While my paintings may have some basis in reality, they’re almost never focused on one specific location. Instead, they are an amalgam of energy, nature, architecture, color palettes, topographical aerial point-of-views, and memories of places that I have been.

When I create my paintings I vacillate between using oil and acrylic. The texture paste that I often use in my acrylic paintings allows me to express sensations I feel when I’m walking barefoot in the sand, calmed by ocean waves, and find a rough beach rock or beautiful shell whose patterns make me stop and study it. I sometimes use broken shells or rugged stones as tools to help create the work that they inspire, scratching or digging through layers of paint to form lines or textures.

I feel most at home, relaxed, and connected in or near the ocean and I spend as much time as possible on the Puget Sound beaches where I live. I’m grateful to be surrounded by so much natural inspiration.

In addition to the Pacific Northwest and the places that I travel to, I often revisit the feeling of Southern California in my work. I’ve been drawn to Los Angeles since I was a teenager, and I’ve had the opportunity to live there on two separate occasions. The light, palm trees, succulents, sage green and earthy desert colors, mid-century modern and Spanish style architecture, bright bougainvillea dripping off white stucco against blue skies, and the Pacific Ocean — these are some of the things that swirl together and allow me to create “my California”.