Hi, I’m Mel.

I’m a Virginia-based, self-taught artist, and I’ve been painting for more than a decade. But somewhere along the way, I realized something important: I was never going to be a realistic painter.

And I don’t want to be.

My mind has always experienced the world a little differently. Reality doesn’t always feel neat, literal, or easily translated. I notice emotion, color, energy, contrast and feeling before I notice whether something looks exactly the way it’s “supposed” to. For a long time, I thought that was something I needed to correct in my art. Now I realize it’s probably the most important part of it.

I don’t paint the world exactly as it is. I paint the way it feels to me.

That means my work can be bright, messy, textured, slightly wonky, peaceful, chaotic, or all of those things at once. I love exploring color and experimenting with different materials—acrylic, oil, gouache, pastels, ink and whatever else happens to make its way onto my art table. I’m much more interested in discovering what a material can do than following rules about what I’m supposed to do with it.

Painting has also become a way for me to take everything happening inside my head and put it somewhere visible. Some paintings begin with a clear idea. Others start with nothing more than a feeling and a color. Sometimes I know exactly where I’m going, and sometimes the painting tells me.

I’m still learning. Intentionally.

After years of simply painting, I decided to really study the craft—color, value, form, different mediums and the fundamentals I once skipped over. I’m learning to let myself make bad art, change direction, experiment and occasionally create something I never could have planned.

That process has changed the way I see being an artist. I don’t think art has to be perfect to be meaningful. I don’t think everything beautiful has to be realistic. And I definitely don’t think every brushstroke needs an explanation.

Sometimes it just needs to feel like something.

That’s what Mel Painted That is about: color, curiosity, emotion, imperfection, and seeing an ordinary world a little differently.