from Ruth Offen, Waterworks Gallery
Great Land Cook Inlet: Ice Action, Oil on canvas
Taking her inspiration from working maritime ships, she creates an abstraction rooted in the realities of steel rust and water. This is the world and work of painter, Melinda Hannigan—recent oil paintings that feature the rusted marks, maritime markers and the language in the world of rust, algae & slime from the surface of tankers, freighter and barges.
Melinda, always having a relationship with the water, whether thru her family or friends, created a fascination with the water and the vessels that glide in the water. The water affects the steel hull of the freighters, tankers and barges, impacting, leaving many types of marks. The anchors, the buoys, the cranes & shipping crates, the piers, the other vehicle, all affect one another. Always leaving marks.
These marks and gouges eventually turn into rust, and the world of rust has many colors. Can steel turn pink? Can that lively shade of green be slime growing on the hull? These images captivate Melinda, and serve as the prologue for the creation of her oil paintings, with turning hard steel realities into abstract paintings.
Water markers, churn against the pale blue steel. Yes, you begin to see the freighter and the waterlines. The language of the sea becomes waypoint markers in understanding abstract painting.
Melinda’s work will be on display at Waterworks Gallery in Friday Harbor, 315 Argyle Street, July 20 through August 10.
