Today we’d like to introduce you to Melinda Patrick
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My artist grandfather put a brush in my hand,gave me paint and demanded “Paint!” There was no turning back. It continued through public school and several years at the Houston Museum of Fine Art Scholarship Class, every
Friday in the basement.
From there I earned a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute, which was more of a cultural education rather than a technical art education. Being surrounded by artists of various genres was a big inspiration for me.
My career was in graphic design and illustration. As computers took over, I enthusiastically joined. I created vector illustrations in Illustrator and those became a huge influence in my painting style – blocks of color and shapes that meld into my view of what I see.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There were several obstacles along the way – all centering around earning an income. Making a living with painting was not in the cards so I evolved my work into graphic design and that paid the bills throughout most of my career. The other major obstacle was being seen by collectors and galleries. This was prior to the internet and artists mostly depended on brick and mortars or art festivals to be seen. But when the internet kicked in, the art world changed for me and I found I could sell in online galleries while collecting buyers worldwide.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My medium of choice is acrylics. I’ve used oils, pastels, pencils, pen & ink, serigraphs, etching and more but nothing compares to acrylics for me.
I have taken notice of which of my subject matter gets the most attention (and sales) and tend to focus on those. The most popular over years is beach scenes. (I’ve had people refer to me as the beach queen.) Add a palm or two and an Adirondack chair and they sell pretty fast. Right now I’m bringing in landscapes to my canvases. My guilty pleasure is still life – mostly sunflowers. And they sell so they’re a staple in my stack of canvases.
I’ve been approached by several print brokers and have contracted with a few of them. Most of the print sales are my beach paintings. Kohl’s has ordered prints of one of those and I’ll be trolling Kohl’s stores this spring to see how they display it.
One of the things I”m most proud of is being approached by a public art company in Las Angeles to paint murals for WalMart stores. My favorite is the one in Richmond, Texas.
Frankly, nothing sets me apart from others. The world is rich with talented artists – some well known and some you’ve never seen. I always the talents of others and enjoy seeing their work. I’m proud to consider myself amongst them.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I dred AI moving in on us. I think it will in some ways but I am convinced the human artist will win in the end. I will say that I do use AI for writing my painting descriptions. I am glad to have it but I edit every description it hands me. It tends to be repetitive and leaves out some pertinent information.
I’m afraid that the brick and mortars will continue to dwindle and that’s a shame because the best art is art you can see in person. I am in one gallery (Primal Gallery in Dripping Springs, Texas) but the down side of that is the art being in a single space where it’s only seen by people who come to the gallery, where my work in online galleries is seen by people worldwide at the same time.
Pricing:
- I price my work to sell for an affordable price that covers supplies, commissions and gives me some money.
- I see a lot of artists overprice their work. Pricing really has nothing to do with the quality of the work. It’s all about name recognition.
- My work is priced consistently – usually according to size. Paintings that are on more than one site are priced the same but some sites wrap the shipping cost into the display price. But price of the painting is always the same.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://melindapatrick.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melindahamiltonpatrick/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MelindaPatrickArt
- Other: https://www.melindapatrickart.com/
Image Credits
Melinda Patrick
