Melissa Lakey’s painted desert landscapes
Based in Joshua Tree, California, inspiration from the desert landscape can certainly be seen in this artist’s work. She shares how important it was for her to find the joy in creating, rather than feeling pressured by it.
Who are you?
I’m an artist and illustrator in Joshua Tree, California. I love to sketch on location and take a lot of inspiration from the desert landscape here. I also love exploring and drawing in new locations, experimenting with art materials, and collecting way too many sketchbooks. I work in mixed media, combining organic textures, fun colours, and playful subject matter. I love to create artwork that celebrates the landscape and animals of the American Southwest, as well as a nostalgia for travel, road trips, and summer vacations.
What has your creative journey been like?
I have always drawn and painted, ever since I was a kid. When I was a teenager, I thought I’d pursue art as a career. But in my early twenties when I started focusing more on trying to make art I thought people would want to buy, I lost a lot of my enthusiasm for art and eventually gave it up.
After about a decade off, I found my way back to art by participating in The 100 Day Project on Instagram in 2018. It’s a challenge that runs every year, where you choose your own project and work on it every day for 100 days in a row. I decided to do a 100 day plein air watercolour painting project and loved it. I did the project again in 2019 (limited colour palettes) and 2020 (travel illustration) but each time I sort of fell off for the rest of the year.
But after my 100 day project in 2021 (night illustration), something clicked and I just kept on doing art and haven’t stopped. My love of art came back in a way that got lost in my twenties – it became something I looked forward to when I woke up each morning, and that felt like such a gift in a difficult year.
I spent a lot of time taking online workshops, drawing with friends over Zoom, and sketching out on location. I discovered what colours I am drawn to, and the things I enjoy drawing, and my style began to shift from a more realistic style into the fun, loose way that I work now.
I began exploring making money from my art again — from selling original art and prints and teaching workshops, to doing commercial artwork like editorial illustration and greeting cards. I’m finding my way of being a professional artist while keeping my renewed love of art. Part of that has been not putting too much pressure on making a living from art and keeping my current (non-art) job so that I’m free to only work on things that I’m excited about.
Can you tell us about your online art workshops?
Taking workshops and learning from other artists is one of my favourite things to do, so I always knew I wanted to one day teach my own workshops. They are such a fun way to get inspired and learn new things!
I was nervous to teach my first workshop but it was a joy to share exercises and ways of working that I’ve developed over the last few years and the things that get me excited about making art. There’s nothing like the feeling of getting a message from someone telling me that I’ve inspired them to get back into sketch booking or feel freer in drawing! One of my biggest goals is to help people to fall in love with making art.
What advice do you have for others wanting to start a creative career?
As I mentioned before, keeping your day job as a safety net for as long as you need means you can have a bit more freedom to explore what you want to do and find what works best for you. You could start by looking for artists and illustrators who have careers that excite you and see what they are up to — what galleries they are showing at, what companies they are working with. Keep notes and start building up a list of dream projects, clients, exhibitions, etc.
Look at your dream list and see if you can break your goals down into manageable steps. A good place to begin is to create some personal projects that reflect the kind of work you want to be doing and start building your portfolio.
Also, share what you are up to! Sharing my work online, especially through social media, has brought me some fun opportunities and I’ve made friends with other artists all over the world.
And that brings me to my final suggestion – find a community to support you along the way. I’ve made a lot of my art friends through online classes, Patreon accounts, social media and also the new Inkygoodness Collective. This year I’m planning to get more involved in the art community in my local area and have just joined the
arts council.
“I love to create artwork that celebrates the landscape and animals of the American Southwest.”
Who inspires you as both an artist and business owner?
I’m inspired by artists who do a blend of fine art, commercial artwork, and illustration – like Margaret Jeane, Ariel Lee, and Lorien Stern. I like the idea that your work can not only be hung on a wall but also find its way into people’s homes on a blanket, scarf, or puzzle. I think there’s less of a divide between fine art and commercial art than there used to be and that is allowing artists to do a larger variety of projects.
Another inspiration for me is Emma Carlisle, especially her sketchbook work. She’s the one who inspired me to get out of the house and start drawing on location. On her Patreon, she shares sketchbook tours, art supply reviews, and online sketch dates. Her videos are one of the first places I go if I’m feeling uninspired about making art!
“One of my biggest goals is to help people to fall in love with making art.”
What inspires your work? There seems to be lots of flora and fauna!
One of my biggest inspirations is the landscape here where I live in the Mojave Desert and the American Southwest in general. I love the wide open spaces, big skies, and the unusual plants and animals that are here. That’s been showing up in my work a lot over the past year.
I also love to travel and could look at other people’s travel sketchbooks all day! I try to make time to draw whenever I take a trip. Lately, we’ve been on a lot of road trips and as long as we are on a straight road I get a lot of sketching done in the car.
What do you love most about what you do?
To me the best day is when I have a long day that I can spend in the studio doing nothing but playing around, making lots of paintings, listening to music and audiobooks. On days like these, I make so much work!
What challenges have you faced along the way as an artist and how have you overcome these?
I used to be afraid of making a “bad” drawing. So much so that I did all my work digitally, tracing photos so that my drawing would be “right”. If you scroll way back on my Instagram you can see some of that art! But I didn’t actually like the work I was making... I noticed that the artists whose work I was most excited about weren’t making realistic art at all. The colors were completely different, the animals were wonky, the paintings were full of life and energy, and were messy and strange and interesting. So I had to push myself in that direction and let go of making “good” drawings. Gradually, I started to make work that was less tied to being realistic.
Another challenge has been getting caught up worrying about what other people will think of my art. Also thinking that if I do the work that I want to, no one will like it. I don’t have great advice for this except to go ahead and make the art you want to anyway.
I’ve been surprised by the pieces I thought people wouldn’t like, sometimes being the ones that I get asked for prints of the most often. I think when your work reflects you and what you love, people notice and respond to that.
But I do have days that I don’t want to make art and even weeks when I don’t like anything I make. I think that’s a normal part of the creative process. I try not to get discouraged, and to take a break if I need to.
Then I find my way back by starting on something just for fun, like drawing with friends, and ease back into it from there.
@melissa. lakey
Joshua Tree, United States
