The Gallery Mogo Featured artist: Mel Reidy

Mel Reidy moved to the Eurobodalla in 2017. "I call it paradise", she says. "There is something so 'magical' about the light here."

Mel Reidy, painter and printmaker moved to the Eurobodalla in 2017 joining Creative Arts Batemans Bay Incorporated (CABBI) not long after arriving in the Bay with her artworks prominently displayed at The Gallery in Mogo.

Her work features water, light and sky with Mel describing it as “the ebb and flow of the sea, the ever-changing movement of the waves, the vastness of blue skies and that wonderful Batemans Bay light”.

Mel has dabbled in acrylics, however, always returns to oils because due to their fluidity and vibrancy that suit her style of painting in a form of abstraction combined with expressionism.

Currently at The Gallery, Mogo are a series of paintings displaying Mel's love of the sea as well a series of paintings of white yachts shimmering against a swatch of sea colours.

Mel has worked many years teaching art in schools throughout Australia and overseas saying “The possibilities and love of print medium also led me to work with silk screen printing and the production of many unique and individual designs. “Many years in the Northern Territory provided great insight and inspiration. A stall at Darwin's famous Mindil Beach Markets featured original hand screen printed t-shirts based on my love of nature and animals.

“I have now returned to my first love - oil painting.

“My paintings feature sky image interpretations and the magic of light. I 'see' the pattern a sky creates as unique and individual with each and every dawn and with each and every dusk.

“Living on the beautiful south coast has added the dimension and movement of the sea to my paintings.

“The combinations of sky and sea ever changing and ever challenging are evident in nearly each and every one of my paintings,” Mel said

Mel's work can also be found at Mossy Point Cafe and Deli on Perry.

The Gallery, Mogo is a retail exhibition space for members of CABBI, a society open to local arts and crafts practitioners. People interested in finding out more about CABBI should drop in to The Gallery, Mogo, phone 02 4474 2243 or visit their website www.creativeartsbatemansbay.com.au.