ALLA PRIMA

Boulder artist Melissa Stuart brings a new series of paintings. From flowers to abstract skeletal images, come explore & find your very own!

Join Animas Art House as we kick of our monthly Second Saturday events in the heart of downtown Trinidad.

Our sweet Gift Shop will be open with unique jewelry, home goods & other gems from local designers.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Melissa Stuart didn’t always give herself permission to be an artist-at least not out loud. Raised in California, she detoured around her calling for years- swapping art for something more ‘practical’.

It wasn’t until the age of 47-after raising four children and trying to ignore the pull of the brush, that she finally surrendered to what had been tugging at her soul all along. Melissa paints the way some people pray: directly, messily, honestly. Her studio is her sanctuary. Her process is intuitive and impulsive, rooted in classical training & animated by a fierce love of the human form.

She paints alla prima (wet on wet paint application), often from live models, capturing the raw, unrepeatable energy of the moment. To her, the connection between artist and subject is sacred.

Melissa studied at the University Of Denver, University of Nebraska, and University of New Mexico. The real turning point came when she met Elvie Davis, a student of a student of Sergent, who trained her rigorously in classical portrait and figure work.

Since then she studied with a constellation of artists including Hollis Williford, Burt Silverman. Don Sahli, Ralph Oberg, Joan Anderson, Robert Spellman, Amy Clay, Frank Ettenberg and Carol Mothner. Her work has been exhibited throughout Colorado and New Mexico. Her paintings are soulful, raw and alive – evidence of a life lived with eyes wide open.