MELISSA BISBEE ORME

BIO

A Michigan native, Melissa Bisbee Orme graduated from the School of Architecture and Design at The University of Michigan where she majored in painting and earned a BS in Design. She has worked as an art teacher, a printmaker, and a painter in oil and watercolor. Presently she is painting with acrylic on paper and stretched canvas.
  
In the last five years, she has participated in 30 group and 3 solo shows in the Northeast. Her work can be found in private collections throughout the United States and England.

Melissa studied at the New York Botanical Garden in the 1990's where she earned a certificate in Landscape Design and started her own design firm. She has designed numerous gardens for private residences in the Northeast and her garden illustrations have appeared in House Beautiful and Better Homes & Gardens. Her own garden was featured in Connecticut Cottages & Gardens and Private Gardens of Connecticut by Jane Garmey. She refers to garden design as “designing and painting with plants – another medium for the painter.” 


STATEMENT
 
The process of painting, much like nature, is mysterious and ever-changing. I am deeply influenced by this phenomenon. Within my compositions, my love of nature and the landscape frequently manifests itself.
My approach to painting is directed by process; it is a projection and reflection of both my conscious spirit and my subconscious. The visual outcome of compositions and techniques presents itself abstractly in both form and color and challenges me at every level.
My work begins with spontaneous markings, but it is never free from the underlying elements of design. These elements are the essential tools that guide me through the intuitive creation and the intentional manipulation of a successful image. 
This is the essence of my journey as a painter and my passion.