Melissa Yates

Contemporary Artist

Responding to the values of beauty, goodness 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, navigating transitions and engaging with the unknown are current themes.I am interested in what society considers 'valuable' and whether our current culture 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 consider what I can learn about myself & others and how we perceive reality.My art is an engaged, honest and thoughtful response to the sense of meaning I experience when connecting deeply with the natural world.I work in pencil on paper or wooden panel. For me, simple materials plus sustained attention is a poetic way to cut through the noise of daily life and connect to its 'essence'. By contrast the subject matter can be highly detailed; this speaks to the perception that Nature is complex, relational and interconnected. My process considers both complexity and simplicity and how they coexist.

‘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