Melanie Miller

I came across the work of  Melanie Miller a couple of years ago via the Millennium Gallery in St Ives. The recent change in the weather has made me think about these quiet paintings of discarded objects and detritus, not considered important or deserving of scrutiny. Working within the tradition of still life, objects which include flowers, insects, birds small toys and found discarded ephemera, are painted life size in oil on gessoed panels.

Recently, and this is what attracts me to her work, she has began to acknowledge how important the context of where she paints, is as important as, what she paints, the where being Eel pie Island a small Island in the middle of the river Thames accessed only by a footbridge. I don't know why her paintings make me think of winter but for some reason they do, maybe it's the stillness of them. You can see more of her work here, and here.