“Do you want to paint?”
Lakewood artist Melanie Brannan asked the baffled reporter this question. The Shreveport-native in her 60s dipped a wide brush in water and laid down a wet strip on the thick paper in an open sketchbook.
“This is super fun,” she says as Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times” plays in the background at her studio. “You’re going to take a little brush. Here are the watercolors. And then just let it bleed.”
The paint color rippled through the water, and she encouraged the reporter to repeat the process, creating more hues in the abstract picture.
“Play,” Brannan instructs.
Photography by Ethan Good
Art feels the way it must have felt to Brannan decades ago when she first picked up a paintbrush — easy and comfortable.
Brannan studied advertising and graphic design in college, but wanted to major in painting. Her professor pushed her to stick with advertising design and to come back to painting later.
She did.
Brannan ran her own firm for 26 years and returned to painting in her 50s during the Great Recession when her clients, like Neiman Marcus, took the projects she worked on in-house.
“So, I just started painting,” Brannan says. “Best thing that ever happened.”
In 2009, a man building a house in Highland Park commissioned Brannan to create an impasto painting, a technique that uses thick layers of paint to create a textured and 3D effect. She still works with him today, but she also has other clients in Dallas, Santa Fe and beyond.
Once finished, the watercolor rectangle on the page resembled tie-dye, and Brannan dried it off with a hair dryer. She grabbed a pen to draw on top of it and used a charcoal pencil to create a border. Brannan doodled alongside the reporter and sketched little trees onto some of the paintings.
“I’m always making landscapes,” she says while drawing.
Brannan says she can paint anything, but nature seems to be a common theme in her work. A look around her studio provides examples — an abstract depiction of a landscape with wavy, horizontal lines; profiles of a jackrabbit, raven and coyote near an apple tree; a painting of a cat with its paws stretched downwards; a parametric art piece with earth and sky-toned colors.
Brannan’s work has been in many exhibitions locally and in other states. Her solo shows can double as fundraisers, like last year’s benefit for children with cancer’s Camp Esperanza. She and her artist friend who works with the camp raised thousands of dollars.
“We sold 11 paintings that first opening night, which is unheard of,” Brannan says.
Previously, Brannan also fundraised for AIM at Melanoma Foundation to memorialize her friend.
“Painting is my gift, and I like to give back,” she says.
The reporter outlined the contours of the colors on the small watercolor painting instead of drawing trees like Brannan did. The artist didn’t judge.
“You should (do it differently) because you have different DNA than me,” she says.
It’s no surprise that Brannan has taught art to children and adults.
“The kids are great because they’re fearless,” she says. “I watch their techniques, and it brings a lot to my work, and it makes me have to explain things. I have to watch how I paint so I can explain to other people how to do it.”
Brannan had just returned from teaching at a retreat in Santa Fe for adults, where she was also doodling on top of small watercolor paintings.
“My friend saw me doing this in Santa Fe when we were doing that retreat,” she says. “Three of them came over and said, ‘Here, I want to do that, too.’ I’m like, ‘They’re just stupid little doodles.’ And then another friend came over Sunday, and he goes, ‘I want you to show me how to do those little doodles.’ So he came over. (Chris Miller is his name. He’s a cool guy, artist.) Then he said, ‘Well, what if we have a little art party at (my) house and everybody’s just going to come over and do your little doodles?’”
Brannan raises her voice with excitement and a hint of disbelief. “So, 12 people are coming over to his house to do these silly little doodles!”
Creating art can bring out profound emotions in people. Brannan knows this reaction well.
“I was teaching another class. It was a private party, and a guy came up to me afterwards, bawling, crying, and he wouldn’t let go of me,” Brannan says. “And I said, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ And he goes, ‘Well, my niece was here tonight.’ And I go, ‘It’s an all-adult party.’ He goes, ‘No, my niece was here, and I finally understand why she loved art so much.’”
Brannan points to a picture in her studio of the niece, 6-year-old Emilie Parker, a victim of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary massacre. After that night, Brannan dedicated a show in honor of Emilie and included her picture and story in the exhibition.
“Emilie wanted to have an art gallery one day, and she died when she was 6, and I asked the family … if I could have her in the gallery. And they were absolutely thrilled,” Brannan says.
She continues, “That’s the most worthwhile thing, better than selling paintings, better than creating paintings. It’s just to be able to be in a career that touches people’s lives like that, it’s pretty amazing.”
As for Brannan’s final piece of watercolor doodle instruction?
Don’t forget to sign your work.
