Melissa Lofton

Carmel Art Association member Melissa Lofton has lived in Big Sur all her life. “I am constantly surprised and delighted at how rich and varied the coast and mountains are,” she wrote on her website. “Always changing, often challenging, I think of my life here as ‘life on the edge.’” Lofton’s medium of choice is oil on canvas; her landscapes include a large dose of fantasy, also when it comes to colors. She is playing between landscape painting, born out of her love for the natural world, and abstract work, a natural expression of inner worlds, Lofton paints large-format pieces, characterized by complex, lively color and texture. In her abstract work, she is fascinated with the possibility of painting a more subjective inner world: dreams, thoughts, the qualities and feelings of living on this planet.