Rae Melody
Originally from Yorkshire, Rae studied art in Leeds during the 1990s, gaining a BA (Hons) in Printed Textiles & Surface Pattern Design.
After having her two children and moving to Wiltshire she studied PGCE Art & Design at Bath Spa University. She qualified as an art teacher and worked within the special needs sector throughout her career. Whilst teaching, Rae led on co-ordinating links with schools in China, Jordan, Nepal and Brazil, enabling her to participate in reciprocal visits and igniting the designing of a collaborative global learning curriculum. Rae is also a Thrive Practitioner and lead on mental health initiatives in her most recent setting. Throughout her career Rae has been an advocate for the importance of promoting positive mental health and wellbeing, linking this to mindful activities and projects both inside and outside the classroom.
Having always painted whilst teaching, Rae was part of The Experimental Drawing Hub, Swindon and led on printing workshops for other artists.
Rae loves to travel and experience different cultures and has spent some time backpacking and working in various countries over the past thirty years. She seeks inspiration from the environment, nature, her imagination, the world around her and the world within and has a growing interest in the universe and her presence in it.
Rae has always been fascinated by paint, textures, interesting surfaces and mixing colours. She loves to create the appearance of something that is worn and weathered by using paint and finds that acrylics enable her to build up layers which she can work back into.
Her love of surface pattern design is apparent in much of what she does and can be seen in the backgrounds of her paintings. She often uses printing techniques such as screen printing in her work. Resin also plays a part in Rae’s paintings as she loves the shininess of it and likes how it highlights interesting areas and enhances colours.