The Great Atlantic Galleries

melanie stokes
hedgerows and headlands

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Montbretia, coming down Carn Bosavern
50 x 70cm mixed media on paper SOLD

Hedgerows and Headlands

“This series of paintings is about my astonishment at walking around the edges of St Just-in-Penwith” in early summer and finding the landscape utterly transformed by flowers. My usual strides to the rocky coast with its mighty headlands have turned into little hops from one amazing clump of hedgerow to another.

“I have been completely enchanted by the waves of colour and splashes of detail that animate the land so close to the restless sea. All my paintings derive from drawings made in situ. I have sat under clouds of cow parsley along the stream in Kenidjack Valley, reminded by a Robin’s song that Nature’s eyes are upon me. Drawing is a world of silence and sound. The silence of concentration punctuated by singing water, birds, wing beats, the distant humming and buzzing of farm machinery. And then there is the lung-blessing air, ferrying its fragrant messages.

“The mystery of life cycles permeates the hedgerows: last year’s battered stalks blanket the base of new shoots and leaves. The last of the bluebells stand dryly under the new bracken unfolding on the cliff top… .

“These paintings are my songs of love.”

Melanie Stokes

St Just based artist Melanie Stokes holds art degrees from the Universities of Edinburgh and Dundee and from the Chelsea College of Art. She has enjoyed a number of solo and mixed exhibitions in recent years and is now pursuing her professional painting career from her new base in Britain’s most westerly town. We, at The Great Atlantic Galleries, are delighted to be showing another body of Melanie's work and firmly believe that her paintings will be much sought after in the near future.

Please call 01736 788911 (gallery hours) or 01736 786016 (evenings and weekends) or e-mail: gallery@greatatlantic.co.uk to reserve the work of your choice.

Paintings may be collected by arrangement or we can deliver from as little as £20 depending on size and distance. Money back if not entirely satisfied (provided we are informed within 3 days of your painting being collected/delivered). Cheques and all major credit cards accepted. Colours may vary between the original paintings and the reproductions shown here.