The work of Melvyn Evans conveys his love for the British countryside. Through the considered use of colour and shape, his paintings and lino prints embody a sense of place while exploring the bond between human endeavour and the landscape's dramatic, natural backdrop.
"We've marked the landscape for millennia with walls, boundary stones, ancient trees, carvings, and markers. I am interested in how communities navigated their landscape using these local reference points often giving them characteristic names, some of which have now lost their meaning, but all give us an insight into the past."
Melvyn has created a visual vocabulary, across his disciplines, that connects us to the past through landscape. Painting references printmaking, in the layers and texture that evoke a sense of history. Traces of previous marks, scratches, shapes, and colours creates a half-forgotten narrative running below the surface, mirroring the landscape from which they were inspired.
Melvyn Evans is a painter, printmaker, and illustrator based in Kent. Initially trained as a marine engineer - spending time working on submarines - Melvyn studied illustration at Exeter College of Art and Design, followed by a year at Goldsmiths College, London. He then took up drawing classes at the Royal College of Art under the tuition of Bryan Kneale RA. Melvyn's work has been widely exhibited throughout the UK, including at the Royal Academy, the Royal College of Art and Somerset House.
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At the begining of 2021, Melvyn took some time to answer some questions about his background, his work, and his process.
Melvyn Evans: Artist Spotlight
Selected Exhibitions include:
London Transport Museum
Science Museum, London
Barbican, London
National Open Art Exhibition, Minerva Theatre, Chichester
National Open Art Exhibition, Royal College of Art, London
The Orangery, Knole, Kent
Bankside Gallery, London
Awards
Award winner at Menier Gallery, London. Presentation by Ken Howard RA.
Bursary award winner for South East Open Studios
Silver Award winner Serco/AOI Prize for Illustration for Transport for London
Memberships
Memberships
Associate Member of the Society of Graphic Fine Art