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Paintings by Melodee Martin Ramirez

Sky Fragment: Chile 1, 2007
oil on panel - 24 x 24 inches.

Recently, I began to focus on "fragments" of the natural world around me, increasing my awareness of small visual moments. My concern with environmental issues is an undercurrent in this recent work, considering, among other things, air quality and its influence on the colors of the sky.

The appearance of our sky is influenced not only by events here, but also far away, reminding us of how we are interwoven with everything on our planet.

This image was inspired by a plane ride over the Andes mountain range on my return from Chile.

 

 

Sky Fragment: Montana 1, 2007
oil on panel - 24 x 24 inches

Two years ago I became interested in the impact of global warming. The possibility of the impending loss of places like Glacier National Park in Montana, one of my frequent summer haunts, inspired me to look more closely at Nature.

 

 

Sunset Series: 125, 2004
oil on canvas - 22 x 28 inches

My painting reflects my life. Living on a wooded hill overlooking Lake Grapevine, the landscape, sunsets and wildlife I see around me everyday appear in my paintings. I found the owl feather while walking in the woods on the north shore of the lake.

 

 

Considering Vermeer, 2001
oil on canvas - 39 x 33 inches

An avid traveler, I have studied on site many of the art historical pieces I incorporate into my work. This painting was inspired by a visit to Amsterdam, and the Vermeer paintings in the Rijksmuseum. Note the tiny Milkmaid, behind the foreground figure.

As a professor of art history, I have many opportunities to explore the meaning between cultures past and present. The paintings function on multiple levels: the beauty of the visual realm, the scholarship of the art historical source, and the dialogue between old and new philosophies to intrigue the viewer's intellect. Created in a historical technique of grisaille and glazes, the paintings strive for depth and luminosity.

 

 

After Lethe: Longing to Remember, 1998
oil on canvas - 84 x 156 inches

Inspired by Gauguin's Where Do We Come From, What Are We, Where Are We Going? painted in Tahiti in 1897, this imagery presents contemporary figures in settings that are personal for me.

The intention of this piece is to explore the parallels between the timeless world of myth and the present. In the title, Lethe refers to Plato's The Republic, tenth chapter, in which he creates the Myth of Er. Er is a brave soldier who died in battle whose soul visits a mysterious place, a place where souls chose their paradeigma, or pattern, for their next life based on their experiences in former lives. Before the soul returns to Earth, it must pass through Lethe, the plain of forgetting. Arriving on Earth with no memory of its past; the heart, which holds the image of one's chosen lot in life, guides the soul.

 

 

Sunset Series: 112,
cover art for Painting the Figure in Oils,
3 DVD Set

This 3 dvd collection will instruct beginning to advanced oil painters in the method of under-painting. The under-painting is achieved using monochromatic values for the development of the figure, then the color is applied with oil color glazes. This method has been used for centuries.

E-mail: mramirez@dcccd.edu

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