MASTERPIECES

MELANIE MEGGS

// Melanie is from Newcastle, Australia. Art has always been a big part of her life, having studied Fine Arts and majored in printmaking and painting. This year, during the Queensland winter, she had a chance to visit the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane to see the special exhibition of European Masterpieces from the collection of the Metropolitan in New York.

What draws you to the arts?

“I have a background of studying fine art. I majored in printmaking and painting. And I also studied music and played mainly the tenor horn and trumpet. I love architecture, interior design, landscape design, furniture design, and I have dabbled in most. I am always being creative. My biggest success was owning a gallery/homeware store with my best friend, where we created and sold our own work and supported other Australian creators.”

What impressed you most about the exhibition?

“Who isn’t impressed by the great masters of fine art? I was quite overwhelmed seeing them up close, after only being able to see them in a book. To see the brushstrokes, the translucency or opaqueness of the paint, and those grand frames. All an absolute pleasure. It is wonderful that we have exhibitions like this.”

The exhibition ‘European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York’ at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane spans artworks from 500 years, from the 1420s and emerging Renaissance to the height of early twentieth century post-impressionism, from The Met´s collection. Visitors can admire works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Turner, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Monet, and many more master artists.

Melanie says, “It has always intrigued me how people interact with art. In June I had the small window of opportunity to be able to travel across the border to Queensland to visit my family. Whilst I was in Brisbane I visited the Gallery of Modern Art, which, to my delight, was the day of opening for the travelling exhibition “European Masterpieces”. In this series, I wanted to not just capture the art, but also the way people interacted and related to each individual piece of art. I wanted to create an interesting but minimal scene about a masterpiece to become my new piece of art. I intended to create colours that were film-like, as if I had shot in analogue. It is my way of painting realistically with my camera… if that makes any sense. I just want to make interesting pictures.”

This is our second feature of Melanie´s work. We encourage you to also take a look at her photos from the Hakone Open Air museum in Japan.

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Click on the photos to see the full image.

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ALL PHOTOS © MELANIE MEGGS

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To see more of her photography visit Melanie´s Instagram page. You can also look at her gallery on the Pictorial-List website. Melanie is also co-editor of Spectaculum Magazine and founder and chief editor of The Pictorial-List.