Lynne B. Mehlman
Drawn to the beauty of nature, Lynne has been painting her whole life. As a first-grade student in Japan, she won a prize for her painting of the cherry blossoms that she found so captivating. Throughout her school years she continued to receive encouragement, and she took as many art classes as she could, from ceramics to calligraphy to lithography. However, she never found the intensive training that she desired until she met Robert Cormier, the instructor of the R.H. Ives Gammell Studios in Boston, MA and a former Gammell student himself. Lynne studied with him for 4 years.
Lynne then furthered her studies with Paul Ingbretson, another Gammell student, in Manchester, NH, for more than 5 years. Lynne’s training comprised as much focus on learning to see as on the craft of drawing and painting. Robert Cormier called it an impressionistic approach, based on what hits the eye first. Paul Ingbretson calls it painting in the visual order, in the tradition of Boston School Painting. She found truth in Gammell’s words, “A student’s progress seems to him like the falling of successive scales from his eyes… It is, in fact, only after his eyes have acquired a fairly high degree of sensitivity, which is to say, when he can paint fairly well, that a student realizes the overwhelming difficulty of painting.”
Her studies began with charcoal cast drawing, as taught in the 19th century European atelier system. From cast drawing Lynne progressed to still life drawing and oil painting, figure drawing, and, finally, portraiture and figure painting. To complement her intensive studio work, she studied plein air landscape painting with David Curtis, yet another Gammell student.
Lynne’s oil paintings capture vibrant colors and light effects in her elegantly composed arrangements. She strives to accurately depict the impression of nature, while leaving a sense of mystery in the shadows and of wonder about the beauty around her. Always seeking a pleasing balance of unity and variety, Lynne favors fruits and florals for her still life paintings because of their diverse hues and shapes, and the way they add visual magic to simpler objects such as ginger jars and vases. Her goal is to express more with less, to work towards poetry instead of prose.
Lynne has won many awards and has numerous works in private collections. She is a member of the Guild of Boston Artists, the Rockport Art Association & Museum, the North Shore Arts Association and the Whistler House Museum of Art, where she exhibits regularly. Additionally, she is a member of and participates in regional and international competitions at the Art Renewal Center, the Oil Painters of America, the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, the Hudson Valley Art Association, the American Artists Professional League, and the Academic Artists Association. Lynne currently works from north light in a studio in Lawrence and resides in Lowell, MA. To complement her solitary painting lifestyle, she volunteers her time and skills to art organizations close to her heart. Lynne is currently Vice President of the Board of Managers at the Guild of Boston Artists.
