Happy Mother’s Day!

Pen and ink portrait of Native American heroine Sacagawea with her infant son on her back. Blue ink and blue wash featured.

  Happy Mother’s Day! In developing a pen and ink portrayal of Sacagawea, one famous mother, I created a lot of “good try’s” (those images that didn’t make the grade). First off, I was working from my imagination, because there are no photos of Sacagawea. There is a painting of her with Lewis and Clark,…

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Selfie, Sorta

Detail from A sketched "selfie" of artist Melani Grube. Red hair, bobbed, glasses, face.

  A selfie, sort of. A sketch of me, if I looked a little different. So, really, it’s a character sketch based on me. Sketching seems to be a series of choices. Which features do I include? Which features do I imply? How close to reality do I take this? How much do I let…

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Reveal of the Finished Painting: Woman in a Red Raspberry Beret

Detail from the painting, The Woman in a Red Raspberry Beret, inspired by Pablo Picasso's The Woman in a Red Beret. Features violets, blues and lime greens. A blonde woman in a raspberry red beret and checked blouse gazes into the distance.

  Have you been wondering how it would turn out? Now you can see the finished painting, my version of Picasso’s “Woman in a Red Beret “. Sotheby’s Auction House has a great blog post on Picasso’s painting that they recently auctioned off. You can see the Picasso piece below.     The portrait I…

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Red Beret Work in Progress Video

  Would you be inspired by a $70 million painting? I was. But it wasn’t about the money (though the auction sale total did amaze me). Really when I saw Picasso’s “Woman in a Red Beret”, the piece recently auctioned off at Sotheby’s, it was the undiluted, unapologetic emotion of the image that got me.…

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The Girl Who Left Home to Learn David Hockney

A detail from Melan Grube's sketch of David Hockney's etching of Rapunzel, the Older, for his book, "Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm". A woman with incredibly long hair, flowing down her back and piled on the floor behind her. She wears a long gown and carries two white, long-stemmed lily flowers.

  Oh, I had such a fantastical afternoon, once upon a too bright Saturday. I found my way into the strangely dim, yet clear light of a brand new art center and its surprising gem of a show: David Hockney‘s Etchings from his book, “Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm“. These fairy tales are…

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Journey of Hope 2017 Exhibit: Unveiling the Completed Painting

A surreal woman stands and floats in a sea of waves and flowers. A rose-colored cloud escapes her lips. The flowers embrace and surround her. Mystical faces watch and accompany her. Violets and blues featured.

Official title: A Portrait in Song   Do you ever experience anxiety as you work on an important project? When I started this piece, I had anxiety about finding the image. I didn’t have an image in mind after reading the mental health journey story I was given by the exhibit coordinators. But that’s normal…

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Journey of Hope 2017 Exhibit: Last Year’s Painting

A woman with radiating hair, sings among luminous faces in the air, all in lavenders and blues.

  If you’ve been following along, you’ve seen that I am creating a painting for the Journey of Hope Exhibit 2017 that is happening in October. I thought you might like to see the painting I created for last year’s exhibit. This painting is called, “Finding Her Voice”. The exhibit promotes mental health awareness and…

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