Monthly Picks: Melinda Jane

Melinda Jane - Guest Curator October 2022

Each month we ask one of our artists or collaborators to select two of their favourite works from our collection.

This month our guest curator is Melinda Jane.

A recent addition to Quirky Fox, Melinda’s work is beyond photorealistic. Appearing to almost jump off the surface, the use of vibrant colours and inclusion of abstract forms is what brings a surrealism edge to these hyper realistic images.

Melinda credits the interconnectivity between art forms in nature, flora and fauna and the small, sometimes overlooked wildlife that inhabit the natural world as her main influence. Combining this with an interplay of historical design elements she hopes to capture beautiful surreal moments that would otherwise be fleeting, allowing the viewer a glimpse into an environment rich with symbolism and an underlying sense of the harmony that can occur between nature and art.

Tranquil – The Stillness That Bears Light Into An Ocean of Thoughts by Dewi Plass

Tranquil really is the perfect name for this piece. Before knowing the title of this painting it was the first word that came to mind. A wolf that peacefully slumbers in the azure depths. I imagine it dreaming of its surroundings that meet at a cross roads between an uncharted underwater seascape that would be foreign to the wolf, and the familiarity of field mice which float by in bubbles. Lily of the valley flower buds merge with delicate ethereal jelly fish which dance through the waters in the pale light of a chandelier.  

I really enjoy the sense of stillness, calm and inner reflection that the piece invokes. It’s the type of painting that helps soothe the soul and remind you to stop and take a breath.

The Pearl Thief by Heather Denison 

I just love Heather’s work. There is always something so captivating about how she paints. The way she plays with light and dark in a palette of gently muted tones gives the characters in her work such presence. I was immediately drawn to ‘The Pearl Thief’ and it still has me wondering, who is really the thief?  

Initially I assumed the Monkey, which my eye was drawn to first. Larger in stature than the other animals and because, by nature, they immediately invoke an assumption of mischief. But upon closer inspection I noticed the collar of pearls that surround the monkey’s neck and head like a halo and its tail curled around the largest pearl of all. Has it been stolen or is it possibly an offering to the Rabbit below? 

Perhaps the thief is actually the bird holding the pearl clasped in its beak. Is it taking the pearl or returning it to the teapot? The rabbit already has a few pearls of its own. Is it the thief eyeing the pearl held by the monkey as a tempting treasure to take?

Beauty of the work aside, the painting makes me consider the pearls as an allegory for wisdom and its cyclical nature. Collected through the passage of time, offered and taken by those with less, held but lost if not shared.