Melanie Blackwell

‘Boys’ features seven of Melanie Blackwells closest friends, whom she met under the common denominator – T.G.I Fridays. Blackwell worked there as a waitress supporting herself and career through university and beyond.

‘Boys’ was exhibited last year with the intent of showing the personality of her subjects. Mainly illustrating the importance that the boys represent to Blackwell, and the significance of their mutual friendships.

‘Boys’ is a work with friendship and respect at it’s core, allowing personality to shine through to the surface.

‘Boys’ features seven of Melanie Blackwells closest friends, whom she met under the common denominator – T.G.I Fridays. Blackwell worked there as a waitress supporting herself and career through university and beyond.

‘Boys’ was exhibited last year with the intent of showing the personality of her subjects. Mainly illustrating the importance that the boys represent to Blackwell, and the significance of their mutual friendships.

‘Boys’ is a work with friendship and respect at it’s core, allowing personality to shine through to the surface.

‘Boys’ features seven of Melanie Blackwells closest friends, whom she met under the common denominator – T.G.I Fridays. Blackwell worked there as a waitress supporting herself and career through university and beyond.

‘Boys’ was exhibited last year with the intent of showing the personality of her subjects. Mainly illustrating the importance that the boys represent to Blackwell, and the significance of their mutual friendships.

‘Boys’ is a work with friendship and respect at it’s core, allowing personality to shine through to the surface.

‘Boys’ features seven of Melanie Blackwells closest friends, whom she met under the common denominator – T.G.I Fridays. Blackwell worked there as a waitress supporting herself and career through university and beyond.

‘Boys’ was exhibited last year with the intent of showing the personality of her subjects. Mainly illustrating the importance that the boys represent to Blackwell, and the significance of their mutual friendships.

‘Boys’ is a work with friendship and respect at it’s core, allowing personality to shine through to the surface.

‘Boys’ features seven of Melanie Blackwells closest friends, whom she met under the common denominator – T.G.I Fridays. Blackwell worked there as a waitress supporting herself and career through university and beyond.

‘Boys’ was exhibited last year with the intent of showing the personality of her subjects. Mainly illustrating the importance that the boys represent to Blackwell, and the significance of their mutual friendships.

‘Boys’ is a work with friendship and respect at it’s core, allowing personality to shine through to the surface.

‘Boys’ features seven of Melanie Blackwells closest friends, whom she met under the common denominator – T.G.I Fridays. Blackwell worked there as a waitress supporting herself and career through university and beyond.

‘Boys’ was exhibited last year with the intent of showing the personality of her subjects. Mainly illustrating the importance that the boys represent to Blackwell, and the significance of their mutual friendships.

‘Boys’ is a work with friendship and respect at it’s core, allowing personality to shine through to the surface.

‘Boys’ features seven of Melanie Blackwells closest friends, whom she met under the common denominator – T.G.I Fridays. Blackwell worked there as a waitress supporting herself and career through university and beyond.

‘Boys’ was exhibited last year with the intent of showing the personality of her subjects. Mainly illustrating the importance that the boys represent to Blackwell, and the significance of their mutual friendships.

‘Boys’ is a work with friendship and respect at it’s core, allowing personality to shine through to the surface.

Aaron
Oil on linen
2010

Hung whilst the paint was still drying, ‘Aaron’ exists as a creation for the space and not a fully realised work. Similar to Blackwells drawings, ‘Aaron’ sits as a study and figurative research to a grander more detailed painting. Wanting to obtain a different style to ‘Kevin’, Blackwell approached the work with a more ‘pop style.’ The time limit helping the force of concentration shift from detail and form, to now focus on colour and vast scale.

‘Tim’
Oil on linen
2009 – present

‘This painting isn’t finished and I hope it never is. I keep doing work to it, and have exhibited it once already, but as this is documentation of my relationship with Tim – that is more that just artist and sitter, I would like it to remain an open book – something that I can change, refer back to and rely upon, as many great friends are.’ – Melanie Blackwell.

Blackwell began working with Tim over a year and a half ago. Tim has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and approached Blackwell after he found an ad online looking for obese life models. Documenting began through a number of sittings in drawings and photographs, although sometimes unsure of the direction as to which the project was going, Melanie gained a wonderful friend in Tim and through their time together. This painting is the closest thing to a description of it.

‘Kevin’
Oil on linen
2010

Melanie’s intentions with ‘Kevin’ are to communicate to the viewer a feeling of intensity and intelligence she feels herself when around him. Kevin being a close and very loyal friend of the artist, when the correct image was found, Blackwell worked on conveying these themes of friendship and loyalty in a way she has grown to know best; her oils. Rich colours and beautiful highlights in the piece support the sentiments of the painting. Also the painting marks a growth in Blackwells larger works, the comfortability of large scale now working in harmony with an intense and intricate detail, something Blackwell has felt hard to achieve through time and experience restrictions. In comparison to other works, ‘Kevin’ also contains the use of light in a much more apparent way. Here the subject is forcefully lit an almost ethereal way, something that again adds and helps maintain the concept of sentimentality recurrent in her works.