Melissa A. Richard

Melissa A. Richard

Melissa A. Richard

Artistʼs Bio

Merrimack, NH

Melissa is a New England artist, born and raised, and currently working from her home studio in Southern New Hampshire. Melissa studied art at both the University of Massachusetts and the University of New Hampshire, graduating from the University of New Hampshire in 2000 with a degree in Studio Art. In 2012, Melissa enrolled in Boston Universityʼs Masters of Art Education program, graduating with her Masterʼs degree in 2014. Since she was a child, Melissa has taken an interest in both the arts and in working with young people. Melissa began working with children while still in high school and seriously pursuing art, receiving the Rhode Island School of Design Annual Student Artist Award her senior year. Throughout her career as an artist Melissa has taught art privately, in museums and enrichment programs, as well as in the public school setting. Her dual careers as Artist-Teacher have been symbiotic in nature and much of her work is focused on themes of Childhood and Memory.

Since the mid-2000s Melissa has been exhibiting work both locally in the New England area as well as nationally in live and online gallery shows. In 2016 Melissa had a solo exhibition Lost and Found at the Zephyr Gallery in Salem, MA, as well as a two-person show Figuration Amalgam at the Ayer Lofts Gallery in Lowell, MA. Melissaʼs work is also on rotation at the Gallery Z in Providence, RI and her work has graced the cover of local Indie Rock band Nemesʼ April 2016 live studio album release. The current collection of work showing at Gallery Sitka West is primarily abstract mixed media that explore the emotional qualities of color and texture. Working from very small canvases, to gessoed paper, to larger canvases, Melissa interprets her inner voice about life, love and complex relationships into vivid layers of textured papers, acrylic paint, and oil pastel.