Art Exhibit at Cafe NeverMatters now Open!

For the month of July, My paintings from the Okanagan and Turkey will be hanging in Cafe Nevermatters Cafe and Bistro at 340 Robinson Road Naramata.

Stop in for a coffee or a glass of wine and tell Angelo I said Hi!

(And while you are at it, check out the nicely decorated walls and bathrooms!)

Prints of "A Day at Elephant Island Winery" are also available through the Elephant Island Orchard Wines Tasting Room and Gift Shop.

A big thanks to MyNaramata for writing a small write up about my show at Cafe never Matters and how it related to Elephant Island as well. The article is below, but if you'd like to read the article at its original source, please click here.

Thanks again, Craig!

Link to Cafe NeverMatters

Link To Elephant Island Orchard Wines

1st July 2011

Café Art Show

Editor

Angelo Albano of Café Nevermatters helps artist Melanie Mehrer hang one of her series from Naramata life.

Melanie’s art will fill the café for the month of July. She’ll have many of her funky and whimsical pieces of local life and lore on the walls, as well as some of her work depicting life in Turkey, where she lived in 2009.

Angelo and Melanie are holding a recently finished piece title ‘A Day at Elephant Island.’

Melanie says she is inspired by the way the local winery supports many community and charitable programs and events. This acrylic ink drawing depicts Elephant Island’s crew in the process of making the winery's latest champagne, Pink Elephant.

Also, shown below is a piece featuring Angelo behind the café counter. Angelo says he loves featuring an eclectic mix of local artists on the walls of Cafe Nevermatters.

Here are the previous articles on the work of Naramata’s Melanie Mehrer:
http://www.mynaramata.com/cgi-bin/show_articles.cgi?ID=1346&TOPIC=0
http://www.mynaramata.com/cgi-bin/show_articles.cgi?ID=910&TOPIC=0
http://www.mynaramata.com/cgi-bin/show_articles.cgi?ID=470&TOPIC=0
http://www.mynaramata.com/cgi-bin/show_articles.cgi?ID=512&TOPIC=0

Angelo's Coffee Shop!

Over second and third cups flow matters of high finance, high state, common gossip and low comedy. Coffee is a social binder, a warmer of tongues, a soberer of minds, a stimulant of wit, a foiler of sleep if you want it so. From roadside mugs to the classic demi-tasse, it is the perfect democrat.

~Author Unknown

Angelo's Coffee Shop! 6x9", June 2011

Ahh, I have toiled many a cold winter's day in Naramata chatting with Angelo at Cafe Never Matter's coffee & Bistro, Looking at this exact view- Angelo behind the counter, doing his thing, me at the table directly in front. Since winter is the slow season in Naramata, Angelo never minded me bringing my laptop over to the shop, having a cup of coffee and occupying a table for hours in order to get some work done. but truth be told, I did very little work in Angelo's coffee shop since we both ended up chatting the winter hours away, often between a scone Angelo decided needed to be shared.

Luckily, Angelo likes my paintings, which were hanging in the coffee shop at the time he purchased it last summer. He asked me if I'd like to have another show at Cafe NeverMatters in July, so for the month of July I will be occupying the walls of my favourite coffee spot in Naramata! This also means I've got a trip back to the Okanagan planned for the week before the Canada Day long weekend!

Last year I had my Turkish paintings up, and though I will have some Canadian repeats of last year, I've been trying to get more Okanagan prints up for this year. Two weeks before the show, I'm still painting! But I'm almost there. I hope Naramata likes what it sees!

I took this picture in a hurry, the morning I left for Vancouver. I just wanted enough information to do a little painting of Angelo in his coffee shop.

For more information on Cafe Never matters, Click Here.

See you in July in Naramata!

xxMelanie

The Queens of May!

'But I must gather knots of flowers,

And buds and garlands gay,

For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother,

I'm to be Queen o' the May.'

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Queens of May! 11X14, Ink on Watercolour paper

As some of you may know, I am working hard to fill the walls of Cafe NeverMatters in July. Since I exhibited in the same cafe last year (which was then known as the Village Grounds) I'm doing my best to get some new work out so the people of Naramata can see some new paintings this year.

So after work I come home and paint, and when I'm not painting, I'm at work, and if I'm not exhausted I fit yoga class in there. But sitting and painting for long periods of time can be a little boring and sometimes I get bored of listening to music, or the radio. So for these special times I watch movies or Tv on my laptop. This month I've been watching/listening to the Tudors, and the lives of Henry the 8th and all of his unfortunate wives!

So it's not surprising that when I finished my last raft painting on May Day that I would be inspired both by all of the fabulous costume design of the Tudors and by the May Day celebrations in my home town. (Except these queens are young grade six girls and get to keep their heads when their reign of a year is over!)

May Day happens over Canada's Victoria Day Long weekend in May (Queen Victoria's Birthday). I have participated in May day as a flower girl, a Maypole dancer, a pole sitter (to make sure the maypoles wouldn't fall over) a contestant in the bike decoration contest and as a spectator.

In fact, I found this little video below which shows the celebrations of May Day and was pleasantly surprised to see the Soap box racing takes place next to the house in which I grew up- But then the next shot of the parade you can see my sister and I taking photos- I'm the one in the blue shirt!

MayDay Video courtesy of MyNaramata

I may do one of Maypole dancing but I haven't come up with a sketch I'm happy with yet. I decided wanted to do a painting that didn't involve a landcape and I wanted to capture the fun moments of May Day, which is really a celebration that summer is just around the corner. It's the first sunburn of the year, the first dunk in the lake even though we all know it's way too cold, dancing the birdie dance with your community of Naramatians at the Queen's Ball in the early evening. It's a great little celebration to acknowledge Naramata's colourful past. As I sit and write this from the depths of big city Vancouver I can tell you it's something hard to come by these days and it's quite special.

See you at Cafe NeverMatters in July!

340 Robinson Ave, Naramata

Phone 778-514-0054

http://www.mynaramata.com/show45b/Caf_Nevermatters

xxMelanie