Artist Melissa Lofton was born in Carmel, California and is a longtime resident of the Big Sur area. Playing between landscape painting, born out of her love for the natural world, and abstract work, a natural expression of inner worlds, Lofton paints large format canvases in oil, characterized by complex, lively color and texture. She is inspired by the landscape of home in Big Sur: trees, mountains, rocks and sea. She paints the people and everyday objects in her world and in her travels. In her abstract work, Lofton is fascinated with the possibility of painting a more subjective inner world:  dreams, thoughts, fleeting moments, the qualities and feelings of living on this planet.