The Estuary
Animals. Birds. Insects. Trees. Flowers. Childhood. Family. Melinda Whitten’s art will make you smile—and gasp.
One of my desires for this blog site was that it include art of many kinds—poetic, wise, visual, audible, and more. I tend to focus on writing and books since that’s what I know best, but music and visual arts feed my soul, too. Today, we’re getting colorful and creative!
Melinda Whitten captures the whimsy of God’s creation in the hand-drawn, customized watercolors she shares on her Instagram account. Art lovers can watch her create each piece via reels in which she speeds up the timing—half the fun of gifting a painting to someone is including the link to its reel. I’ve linked just a few of her many reels here to give you a glimpse of her work. Head on over to Instagram and Etsy for the full library of images and videos.
Melinda, who earned her bachelor’s in visual arts from Baylor University with post-graduate work in printmaking, answered a few of my questions about her latest foray into creating art:
Me: How long have you been drawing and painting?
Melinda: Since I was five years old.
Me: What interested you in printmaking? It’s an unusual artistic medium.
Melinda: Printmaking utilized my strong drawing skills better than any other.
Me: Why did you recently start creating reels of your drawings?
Melinda: My daughter encouraged me to start including them with photos of my work. I started with ones that were instructional. The response was good and I saw that other art pages were showing themselves creating their work, but they were more staged—as in, the work was really almost complete, they would show a few strokes of the pen or paintbrush and then a wide shot of a completed work. I decided to show the whole process from start to finish, and the response has been great!
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Me: How is your current process different from printmaking, and which do you prefer?
Melinda: The more detail, the better! But doing the reels forces me to leave well enough alone, be more spontaneous, recognize when less is more, experience failure so I still learn and improve. I’ve learned how to communicate a feeling in a more simplified manner, with fewer strokes and so forth.
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Melinda’s artistic talents reach beyond drawing and painting. She has spent many years singing in the church choir and worship team, building sets for the theater departments at her children’s schools, and sharing sand art with her church community. She and her best friend, Carrie, joined up as a two-woman team, the Skitzy Chicks, acting out funny and dramatic skits for women’s events, churches, and retreats. A few years ago, they began moonlighting as co-hosts of the Made Ya Smile Podcast.
And yes, Melinda does work on commission! If you like her style, send her a note at info@whittenarts.com.
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