Born in western Kansas, Melinda moved to Colorado in 1970. She lives in the mountains west of Denver at 9,000 ft. on a ridge overlooking Rampart Range and Pikes Peak.   An avid hiker, Melinda has hiked many of Colorado’s “Fourteeners” and highest passes, the Grand Canyon and much of the canyon country in the Southwest.

           “The sketches done outdoors become my reference material in the studio.  I take photographs for detail but the color and feeling of a scene don’t always show in a photograph compared to the sketches.   You have to observe color and light to get believability in your work.    

            Melinda prefers painting in oils to recreate the clarity, depth and vibrancy of colors found in nature.   Melinda  is best known for her paintings of Colorado’s mountains and aspen trees, and her “canyon” paintings of the Southwest. Dominated by mountains and grand Southwestern skies, the vibrant colors of the changing seasons are the backdrop for creeks, flowers and the Aspen or “quakies” of the Colorado mountains.

            Her fascination with the current American Indian culture and with the ancient cultures of the Anasazi has brought a new dimension to her recent works.  Her Southwest paintings of traditional and ancient dwellings invoke a melancholy feeling of times past and present.   Stark and sometimes sad, they are no less intriguing than her serene mountain views.