Oil paintings and watercolours by Melissa Chen. Melissa weaves the themes and subjects in her paintings into her films and designs; some of the imagery in the paintings below can also be found in her other work. Depending on the size of a painting, a painting takes between 2 to 8 months to complete. Each oil painting has many layers of oil paint and she allows each layer to dry before the next layer is applied. The glazing technique is used frequently in her work; all of the oil paintings have multiple layers of transparent glaze that helps increase colour saturation for a vibrant effect. She also works only on specially prepared linen canvases that she stretches and primes herself.

To see more videos of Melissa’s painting process, please visit, www.vimeo.com/melissachen.