Melissa Yates

Contemporary Artist

Responding to the values of goodness, beauty and truth present in Nature through the medium of drawing

"Beauty is the harvest of presence"

- David Whyte

about

My work explores how attuning to the natural world can help us make sense of our lives. Embracing vulnerability, engaging with the unknown and cultivating a relationship to wisdom through self-reflection are current themes.I am interested in what society considers 'valuable' and whether our current culture - with its emphasis on productivity and competition - is distorting our innate ability to discern meaningful value, leaving us feeling lost and damaging our living world.Slowing down enough to witness and be present with the values of goodness, truth and beauty in Nature prompts me to contemplate what I can learn from the external world about myself and others.
My art is an engaged, honest and thoughtful response to this.I work in pencil on paper or panel, simple materials which to me feel an elegant and fitting way to cut through the noise of daily life and find the 'essence'. By contrast the subject matter can be highly detailed; this speaks to the perception that our lives are complex, relational and interconnected. My art expresses both complexity and simplicity simultaneously.

‘Of what use are poems, or any other works of art unless to enable human lives to be lived with insight of a deeper kind, with more sensitive feelings, more intense sense of the beautiful, with deeper understanding’ - Kathleen Raine