Working with soft pastels, Melanie creates works of art in a variety of styles. Her background in technical illustration and graphic design assist her in capturing detailed realism in her animal and human portrait paintings, while her native creativity blends with talent to produce free flowing still life and landscape paintings. "When creating a new painting, I try to reach a degree of realism with just a touch of fanciful color that invites the eye to linger."

She describes working with soft pastels like performing magic. "To place seemingly disconnected blocks of color on paper then blending them using only my fingers to create vibrant works of art, both fascinates and delights me."