The Art of the Flat Lay

By Melani | June 1, 2018 |
A flat lay of mystical images, color studies, patterns, handlettering, ribbons, gathered from a mood board.

  What is a flatlay? A flat lay is a photo of an assortment of items laid on a flat surface (thus, flat lay). The photo is most often taken from directly above the items. The surface serves as the background to the photo. The objects usually describe a theme, like “a day at the…

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Using a Flat Lay to Explore the “Wild Horses” Painting

By Melani | June 1, 2018 |
A detail from the flat lay exploration of associations we have with horses, through an assortment of objects: a horse shoe of good luck, the glove of English-style riding, the wildly beautiful horse on the book cover, the bow-tie of the proper gentry riding class, the red and white lariat, the silver cowboy, an arrowhead pointing to the Native American riding tradition, the archer-horse-man of the horoscope sign Sagittarius, and a mini celluloid pencil for scoring horse shows.

  Have you noticed all the different ways that horses touch our lives? When I started working on my “Wild Horses” painting, I  kept running into associations with horses. But I got worried when I started putting together a flat lay image to expand my ideas for the painting. I thought I didn’t own anything…

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