“I feel so lucky to paint.  I don’t know how I saw anything before I painted. I didn’t take the time to truly look, and I didn’t know what I saw.”

Melissa Gann grew up in the Atlanta area admiring art and nature, but studying music.  After receiving her formal education and degree in piano performance, she spent an impromptu month in the Sonoran desert of Arizona with artist and mentor Claudia Hartley.  It was there in the indescribable colors of the winter desert that she first learned to paint.

Melissa also considers Susan Lyon and Scott Burdick her mentors, studying and painting with them often. She has also studied with other masters such as Dan Gerhartz, Nancy Seamons Crookston, and Casey Baugh.

Often Melissa paints from life, working to capture authentic color with suggestive brush strokes.  She also works with photographs and sketches, frequently capturing moments of her other passion, travel.

Melissa Gann currently lives in Atlanta where she continues to make music and art with gratitude to God for the people and circumstances which allow her to celebrate what she sees.

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About her oil paintings, Melissa Gann says:

“I want to paint accurately, but simplified and suggestive. People are endlessly interesting and landscapes have broad appeal, but what’s exciting to me is HOW they are presented.  I love simple subjects rendered powerfully with dynamic design and painterly brushwork.” 

About her acrylic paintings, she says:

“I love close-up, enlarged perspectives – they take you in.   I have to focus a lot on the design of these large pieces.  Fruit are like flowers with their unbelievable color, and their forms have a posture that communicates like a figure.”

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 PUBLICATIONS:

· Southwest Art Magazine July 2011

Mentors and Their Students

Scott Burdick and Susan Lyon / Drawing Out the Best

SELECTED JURIED EXHIBITIONS AND AWARDS:

· Scottsdale Salon of Fine Art, Legacy Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, Angélica 2011.

· Salon International, Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art, San Antonio, TX, Water Sprite, 2011.

· Oil Painters of America 19^th Annual National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils, Legacy Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, Ardent, 2010. Link

· Salon International, Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art, San Antonio, TX, A Hard Sell, 2010. Link

· Painting North Carolina - Annual Plein Air Paint Out and Show - Germanton Art Gallery, Germanton, NC, April 2010.

· Winner of the SourceTek Award

American Impressionist Society’s 10^th Annual National Juried Exhibition, Saks Galleries, Denver, CO, Silk Factory Worker,  October 23^rd - December 1st  2009. Link

· Local Color, Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainesville, GA, Nippon Blue,  June 11 - August 9, 2009.

· Salon International, Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art, San Antonio, TX, Young Girl, Old Tractor, 2009.

· Painting North Carolina - Annual Plein Air Paint Out and Show - Germanton Art Gallery, Germanton, NC, April - May 2009.

· Flying Solo - Arts at the Airport, Nashville International Airport, Nashville, TN, Headed East, Travel Companions, Becalmed Lemon, Pears Exploring, Flying Saucers, Stepping Out, 2009. Link

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

· Muéo Gallery,  Atlanta, GA, August - November 2009

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CONTACT:  melissagannart@gmail.com