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Capturing slices of American landscape in vivid bursts of color, Melissa Chandon's paintings resemble a charmed travelogue. Houses rest on bright green lawns beneath sunny skies; vintage cars putter down deserted highways shaded with palm trees. Chandon credits childhood roadtrips for her love of classic Americana: "To this day, I find roadside vernacular fascinating—cars, gas stations, motels, billboard signs—and I feel it is important to document this era before it disappears."

Though they seem like shards of memories and dreams, Chandon's images are rooted in real life. She travels backroads and small towns, photographing scenes emblematic of this vanishing America, before painting her imaginative translations onto birch panels. A classically trained artist, she guides her work through a multi-phase process incorporating preliminary sketches, underpainting, and varnishing. The interplay of shadow and light is central to her work: Often, it's the position of a shadow that first draws her to an image. In the finished paintings, shadows lend a crucial graphic element—an arrangement of dark geometrical forms that provides subtle but powerful structure.

Chandon counts among her influences Wayne Thiebaud, David Hockney, Edward Hopper, and Richard Diebenkorn--artists who are likewise enthralled with the American aesthetic. Thiebaud, who shares Chandon's passion for a lively, delectable palette and arresting compositions, has noted that her "effective synthesis of abstract and representational elements" give her works "an intensity and raw graphic power to behold." Even at their most dreamlike and meditative, Chandon's paintings pack an indisputable punch.

Chandon has exhibited her work at the Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento; the Richard L. Nelson Gallery at the University of California, Davis; and Art Santa Fe, among many others. In addition to corporate and notable private collections, her art is included in the Morris Graves Museum, Morgan Flagg Collection at the de Young Museum, San Francisco and the University of California, Davis' Shields Library and Davis Medical Center.

Education

• Santa Clara University, BA.
• Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, MFA (2011).

Solo Exhibitions

• 2012 Campton Gallery, New York, NY.
• 2010 San Francisco Fine Art Fair
  Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
• 2009 John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA.
  Sacramento International Airport, sponsored by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts.
• 2008 Selby Fleetwood Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
  I Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA.
  J Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, CA.
• 2007 Morris Graves Museum Eureka CA.
  John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA.
  Terzian Gallery, Park City, UT.
• 2006 John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA.
• 2000 Soloman Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento, CA.

Group Exhibitions

• 2010 Campton Gallery, New York, NY
  I Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA
  Art Hamptons, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, NY.
  San Francisco Art Fair, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, CA.
  Caldwell Snyder Gallery, St. Helena, CA.
  John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA.
  Fine Art Fair Asia, Hong Kong.
  Contemporary Asian Art Fair, Singapore.
  Art Los Angeles Contemporary Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA.
• 2009 Morris Graves Museum, Eureka, CA.
  I Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA.
  John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA.
  University of California, Davis, Consilience of Art & Science, Davis, CA.
  Selby Fleetwood Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
  Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbara, CA.
  SOFA Chicago, Chicago, IL.
• 2008 John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA.
  Selby Fleetwood Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
• 2007 Selby Fleetwood Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
  John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA.
  Art Santa Fe - John Natsoulas Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
  Exhibition de Paysages du Perche la Gallerie air Alan Gauber, Mondoubleau, France.
• 2006 University of California, Davis, Richard L. Nelson Gallery, Davis, CA.
  John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA.
  Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA.
• 2005 John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA.
• 2004 Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, CA.
  John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA.
• 2003 Osceola Gallery, Emeryville, CA.
  University of California, Davis, Walter A. Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center, Davis, CA.
• 2001 University of California, Davis, Richard L. Nelson Gallery, Davis, CA.
• 2000 Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Council, Attorney General, Sacramento, CA.
• 1999 Art Foundry Gallery, Sacramento, CA.
  Solomon Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento CA.
  ArtScape West International, San Francisco, CA.
• 1997 John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA.

Collections

• Morgan Flagg Collection, De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA.
• Napa Valley Museum, Napa, CA.
• Morris Graves Museum, Eureka, CA.
• California State Capital, Sacramento, CA.
• University of California, Davis Medical Center, Davis, CA.
• University of California Davis, Shields Library, Davis, CA.
• Sacramento City College Gregory Kondos Museum, Sacramento, CA.
• Alderwood Business Park, Seattle, WA.
• Jan Jones Collection, Mayor of Las Vegas.
• Alan Gauber, Mondoubleau, France.
• Rudd Vineyard and Winery, Napa, CA.
• Woodland Medical Clinic Hospital.
• Schumaker Oil Collection.
• Tower Corporation: Russ Solomon.
• Ward Carry Collection.
• William Nicholson Collection.
• Trish and George Vandenburg.
• Chevy Chase.

Selected Publications and Reviews

• July 2010 Charles Donelan, "Americans at Play at Sullivan Goss"; Santa Barbara Independent
• August 2009 Bound for Santa Fe: International Attention ; American Art Collector.
• July 2009 The Story So Far ; American Art Collector, p 188.
• June 2009 Forward Thinking ; American Art Collector, p 140 – 143.
• April 2009 Bonnie Gangelhoff, Edward Hopper meets T. Boone Pickins , The Artist Magazine.
• March 2009 Melissa Hart, "Paul Cezanne Was a Physicist: Art and Science are Two Halves of a Greater Whole"; Davis Enterprise, p C6.
• February 2009 Melissa Hart, "Vintage Vistas: A brush with the great American family road trip"; Davis Entreprise, p C6.
• May 2008 Elizabeth Kalfsbeek, Davis Artist Brings Feeling of the Valley to New Med Center ; Daily Democrat & Davis Enterprise.
• May 2007 Bonnie Gangelhoff, Best of the West: Bygone Era Southwest Art Magazine.
• January 2007 Gussie Fauntleroy, Ten Artist to Watch 2007 ; Southwest Art Magazine.
• January 2007 Cathleen Ferraro, Subtraction Adds up to Art ; Inside the City Publications.
• January 2007 Suzanne Munich, Davis artist acknowledged by national magazine ; Davis Enterprise.
• September 2005 Chrisanne Beckner, Paint Your Valley ; Sacramento News & Review.
• July 2005 Victoria Dalkey, Valleyscapes Paintings show the diversity of North Valley's Regions ; Sacramento Bee, p 45.

"Chandon has developed an effective synthesis of abstract and representational elements in her works. This gives the works an intensity and raw graphic power to behold."
--Wayne Thiebaud