{"id":3901,"date":"2026-05-18T13:21:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/?page_id=3901"},"modified":"2026-05-18T13:21:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:21:57","slug":"melanie-essex-2026","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/melanie-essex-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Melanie Essex"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"481\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/files\/2026\/02\/Essex-Melanie-Night-Station.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3902\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/files\/2026\/02\/Essex-Melanie-Night-Station.jpeg 481w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/files\/2026\/02\/Essex-Melanie-Night-Station-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/files\/2026\/02\/Essex-Melanie-Night-Station-150x150.jpeg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 481px) 100vw, 481px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Melanie Essex, <em>Night Station Rockland<\/em>, oil on canvas, 22 x 22 in., 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><em>Night Station, Rockland<\/em> is part of an ongoing series I began in 2020 during a residency in Monson, Maine. Walking home from the studio at night, I became transfixed by the illuminated gas station across from my house. It glowed like a movie set\u2014the lighting was so dramatic. I would do drawings of the station during the day and work from the drawings back in the studio. This painting is based on the station at the corner of Maverick Street and the Old County Road\u2014just far enough outside town that little else is lit up around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"481\" height=\"480\" data-id=\"3959\" src=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/files\/2026\/02\/Essex-Melanie-Early-July-2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3959\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/files\/2026\/02\/Essex-Melanie-Early-July-2.jpeg 481w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/files\/2026\/02\/Essex-Melanie-Early-July-2-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/files\/2026\/02\/Essex-Melanie-Early-July-2-150x150.jpeg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 481px) 100vw, 481px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Melanie Essex, <em>Late July<\/em>, oil on panel, 8 x 8 in., 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"480\" height=\"484\" data-id=\"3961\" src=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/files\/2026\/02\/EssexMelanie-Late-July-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3961\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/files\/2026\/02\/EssexMelanie-Late-July-1.jpeg 480w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/files\/2026\/02\/EssexMelanie-Late-July-1-298x300.jpeg 298w, https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/files\/2026\/02\/EssexMelanie-Late-July-1-150x150.jpeg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Melanie Essex, <em>Late July<\/em>, oil on panel, 8 x 8 in., 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Left: Melanie Essex, <em>Late July<\/em>, oil on panel, 8 x 8 in., 2024. Right: Melanie Essex, <em>Late July<\/em>, oil on panel, 8 x 8 in., 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These two paintings are \u201cend of the day\u201d studies\u2014small, one-session works that are a sort of coda to a long stretch in the studio. <em>Early July<\/em> is about the specific quality of light at the beginning of summer when everything still feels new. <em>Late July<\/em> reflects deep summer\u2014that moment when the season has taken complete hold and the light begins to shift towards the August spectrum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-1 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Night Station, Rockland is part of an ongoing series I began in 2020 during a residency in Monson, Maine. Walking home from the studio at night, I became transfixed by the illuminated gas station across from my house. It glowed like a movie set\u2014the lighting was so dramatic. I would do drawings of the station [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17810,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3901"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17810"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3901"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4055,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3901\/revisions\/4055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/lcbates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}