Studio Sneak Peeks...

Detail of "From the Center" 40" x 30" Melynda Van Zee © 2011

Things are getting underway for the Autumn Studio Tour happening this weekend right here in the studio.  Not only will you be able to see "the real thing" instead of just "sneak peaks", but you can also visit the studios of several other area artists.  For more information on the tour, check out the Red Rock Arts Alliance. 

Detail from "You Know My Way" 48" x 36" Melynda Van Zee © 2011

Please feel free to come and visit me in the studio during the hours of 10 am- 5pm on Saturday, Oct. 9 and 12 pm - 5 pm on Sunday, Oct. 10.  I'd love to have you stop by and share with you the new pieces I've been working on this fall.

Detail from "The Waters" 48" x 36" Melynda Van Zee © 2011

You will also have the opportunity to sign up for a Door Prize.  I'll be giving away this small original T.U.L.I.P. piece titled "Amazing Grace".

"Amazing Grace" 6" x 8" Melynda Van Zee © 2011

The Galerie of Pella closing

The Galerie of Pella will be closing on the 31st of this month. For the next two weeks they are having a "Last Chance" sale where you have the opportunity to purchase a piece of your favorite Iowa artist's work.
I've been working with Steve and Molly at the Galerie here in Pella for over 5 years now. They grew the Galerie from 5 artists in a small gallery space opening right before Tulip Time in 2006 to their current large, spacious home featuring the work of over 45+ Iowa artists. I will miss working with them. I will miss having a gallery in my local town. Together we learned as we mounted shows and celebrated the creativity of so many artists in the area. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity. Endings are never easy, but a natural part of the rhythm of our lives. And, now we look for what is next. We take we have learned and we start a new bend in the journey.

Yah-it is time for a good old-fashioned garage sale!

I've done some deep cleaning in the studio and I'm joining I some friends who have a tremendous amount of paper, etc. that they are ready to part with-come check it out on Saturday if you are in Pella, IA! I'm selling plastic organization drawers, decorative stamps, kids stamps, idea books, 5 x 7 albums, foam stamps, handmade painted art journal papers and more. Come and join the fun!

HUGE Scrapbooking/Craft Supply sale at the Pella Memorial Building on Saturday from 8- 1...Paper, stamps, albums, idea books, tools, cricut cartridges and much much more!

Beauty in the moment

The view from the front of my house

right now

this very moment

beauty for the taking

Iowa Sweet Corn

It is sweet corn season here in Iowa.

We've made a few trips to the farm to reap the benefits of grandma and grandpa's sweet corn patch.


We had a bit more interesting journey out to the farm due to the huge road construction project on their road. We had to use the dirt road, go through a "road closed" sign, and bottomed out on some ungraded gravel, but we got there.



They plant it rows right in the field with the tractor and 12-row planter. And, while they did try to make me promise to remind them not to plant it again next year-I have a hard time seeing the tradition die quite yet. There is still nothing quite like eating sweet corn for lunch that was picked from the field that morning.


Capturing the sweet corn goodness to enjoy year around takes a bit of hard work from many hands-the boys were great help this year in picking, husking and even cutting the corn off the cob.



I know it is going to taste really great come February when we grab a bag out of the freezer and can have a bit of that sweet corn taste in the middle of winter.

Fresh flowers in the studio

Roses from my husband were the nudge to get out into my garden and pick flowers to add to the arrangement. Nothing like fresh flowers bursting with color in the studio!

Iowa State Fair

Garden of the Soul

©2010 Melynda Van Zee

36" x 48"

Acrylic on Canvas

So excited to find out that both of my entries into the Iowa State Fair Fine Arts Exhibit were accepted. Both "Garden of the Soul" and "From Above the Wind and Waves" will be available for your viewing at the Fine Art Exhibit at the Cultural Center on any day of the great Iowa State Fair to be held August 11-21 in Des Moines, IA.

To be honest, there is a part of me that can’t believe I just wrote that opening paragraph. You see I’ve been going to the Iowa State Fair for as long as I can remember. Throughout my entire childhood, my dad had a booth in the agricultural division of the fair, so we would spend long days wondering through all the fair attractions while he worked. At night, if he wasn’t too tired, he would take me for one ride on the double ferris wheel-equally terrifying as it was electrifying-spinning wildly and flying over the fair grounds seeing for miles. As a teenager, I would occasionally get to invite a friend along to spend the day with me at the fair. Vivid memories of our bodies covered in stickers advertising political candidates, looking for treasures in the Shopping Mart, posing for photos in the Victorian dress up booth, meeting on-air TV personalities in person to capture their signatures-all a part of an Iowa girl’s annual trek to the fair.

I have continued the tradition of visiting the fair as an adult, bringing my own children to make their fair memories (riding a horse for the first time, flying down the Big Slide on a burlap mat, admiring the big bull, riding a boat in the pitch black at Ye Old Mill) and I never miss a trip to the Cultural Center to take it all in. In my years of teaching art to kids, I would love to check out all the kid’s art works that were displayed-looking at the talent and cruising for ideas I could use in my own classroom. I created my own dollhouses as a girl so I don’t miss a chance to see the amazingly detailed doll houses that are displayed. Several year ago on a whim, I decided to try to enter some of my photography to the photography exhibit at the fair. To my great surprise, some of my photos were selected. I’ve entered several more times over the years, always delighted to walk the aisles and see when my work showed up.

But, the fine art exhibit...that was the “someday”, the never gonna realistically happen “someday” part of the fair that tempted me-dangled out there in front of me as a “What if?”

“What if I actually started seriously painting my own paintings rather than dreaming about it?”

“What if I actually started to do what I had been so busy teaching for so many years?”

“What if I got brave enough to enter?”

“What if I get rejected?”

I did get rejected the first time I entered a painting a couple of years ago. But, I tried again. So in this fortieth year of life, I can say that there are still “What ifs?” that God is placing and answering in my life. There are still things that I have to learn and there are still surprises waiting around the corners of my life. Sometimes I get frustrated about living in what other people call "fly-over country". I lament the lack of opportunities that are available in more rural areas. I can get restless with right where I am. But, I am resolved to continue to make the decision to take a long walk with my camera to capture the beauty and depth of my home and pick up the brush to paint what I have to say. And, I am delighted to make another trip to the Iowa State Fair to revel in all that makes this place I live, this Iowa, a continual field of yet-to-be discovered treasures, good old-fashioned fun and dreams for the future.

From Above the Wind & Waves

©2010 Melynda Van Zee

36" x 24"

Acrylic on Canvas