Melody Stacey

Melody Stacey is a fine art and mixed media artist based in Brighton, UK. She recently created an illustration for one of the bookmarks that came as a paper extra in our Dutch special, Flow Books & Reading. Here, Melody tells us more about her work and her love for books.

 “When creating the bookmark illustration, I drew inspiration from renaissance portraits,” says Melody. “I find the detail that they went into when painting clothing in those days fascinating. I wanted to create a piece were the garment was as important as the face. I painted flowers and leaves that gradually change color along the dress, as if they are cascading down. I kept the background as dark as possible to make the dress stand out even more. The woman is fictional, but I imagine her as a strong independent person with a good dress sense! I used gouache to paint it, which is a fairly new medium to me, but it’s become my favorite way to paint.”

How did you develop your style?
“By drawing a lot. I’ve filled a lot of sketchbooks in recent years—they’re so important to progress as an artist I think. I’ve always wanted to tell stories with my work and my drawings have always had an illustrative quality to them. I trained in Fine art, specializing in painting, but nowadays I like to do a mixture of disciplines, such as embroidery, tapestries and clay work alongside my illustrations. It’s taken a while for me to find ‘my style’—my textile work has been a good influence on my paintings and has helped loosen up my style.”

How does your average workday look like?
“As a working mother, a lot of what I do has to fit around my kids, but on a good day I spend my mornings doing admin—I like to get that part out of the way! After lunch, I throw myself into either finishing a painting or a commission, working on new ideas or sketching. If I’m lucky I also get the chance to work on my picture book, which is a private project that I have been doing for some time now. I try not to work after 6 p.m. as I need to have time to unwind, but it’s pretty normal for me to spend the evening sketching something or other.”