about
Melissa Guest
A lifelong love of art from childhood has lead the artist to take her surroundings and experiences and produce a myriad of compositions full of colour, line and shape.
This is combined with found materials such as historical newspapers, sandpaper and materials relevant to the artist, which are used to link the composition from the current developing environment back to a time that possibly was. These works then become part of the history of the developing landscape themselves. They are a mixture of bold and colourful, geometric shapes which can be related back to an abstracted landscape that the viewer may recognise from snapshots of time. “I want the viewer to feel something through the colours I use, for example, the iconic colours of the Sydney ferries and the beautiful blues that our incredible harbour presents us with every day. These pieces all become very nostalgic for me and I hope the viewer experiences this also”.
Her works include a combination of texts and numbers, signifying the history behind the landscape. The historical name of the ferries and the developing city of Sydney we see before our eyes in the form of numbered lift wells are examples of these. Many of these images have been captured by photograph, but lie beneath the developments. “Viewing these buildings being developed out of the ground against the landscape with the numbers of the lifts was amazing, However, on completion, they no longer exist on the outside. I have tried to capture this moment in my works along with other signs and texts that still do exist including the historical name of buildings we still observe”.
Other series of works include depictions of the inner west and central Sydney where the artist has spent much time and recorded through photographs. A similar style is also used to create ‘still life landscapes’ and landscapes associated with Patonga and other rural locations known to the artist.