Melinda Copper

Fanciful Artwork

Copper’s interest in animals led her to pursue a degree in biology, but her passion for art drew her to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting. However, her curiosity about the painting process, and the lack of instruction in the technique, led her to study on her own and to her trademark subject matter.

While visiting Paris, she was amazed at the solid grounding in the “how to” of painting at the great art academies. The artist recalls she was envious and, by fate, during time she spent at the Louvre, she came across a half-finished painting hanging in one of the galleries. Copper discovered the great masters’ use of under painting as the basis for the layers of paint on the canvas. She studied every inch of the work. Thus began the artist’s adventure of teaching herself this technique by the Old Masters.

Copper began copying some of the Old Masters and other famous works. Her first painting was of an exotic and romantic early 19th century work of a Turkish harem girl with an elongated body. The artist decided her model’s figure would be that of a kangaroo. Delighted with the results, Copper again painted the same subject using one of her cats as her model. With this success, she made it her goal to learn great artists’ techniques by copying their works “possess” a painting by an artist she admired, and create portraits of her pets. As the saying goes, the rest is history.
Copper creates delightful works with her animals in costume and character – from tutus to berets to tuxedos and as Mona Lisa to American Gothic to medieval figures – her portfolio is a wonderful collection of “Old Masters” paintings played out in the animal world.

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