Art through the ages
When Mary Mellen first started painting with her friends 20 years ago, she didn’t know she had talent.
“But really there’s talent all through my family, for generations. I have my grandmother’s 1898 sketch book, which is really neat. There’s a sketch of some sheep in there I’m going to paint soon,” she said.
Her daughter, Katherine Trammell, also found her way to painting just a few years after her mother did. This summer, they will be featured together in the Covenant Gallery Series at Covenant Presbyterian Church from August through October.
When Mellen and Trammell have displayed together, they intersperse their paintings together on the wall, so that colors work together.
“I just think it’s really neat that we both [paint],” Mellen said.
Mellen and Trammell, both longtime residents in Mountain Brook, also display and sell their art at Mountain Brook’s Grand Bohemian Hotel and have for several years.
Though they are related, the mother-daughter duo agreed that their styles are very different, both from each other and from several of their artistically-inclined family members, all of whom are now deceased.
Trammell said her paintings are generally abstract shapes and scenes that are done with oils, while Mellen’s paintings tend to be very traditional and always done with acrylics, as she is allergic to oil paints. Mellen also always paints with the finished product in mind, while Trammell lets the painting come to her as she paints.
“Really my inspiration is just I’m drawn to certain colors. You paint what you like. There’s really not right or wrong in painting,” Trammell said. “People’s tastes are so individual, and people are drawn to different things.”
Typically, Mellen paints landscapes and occasionally objects like fruits or crosses, with most of the images coming from her memory or imagination, she said. She takes inspiration from some of the landscapes she’s seen in her travels, as well as ideas she’s gotten from looking back at her grandmother’s sketch book and her great-grandmother’s portrait paintings. She said her great-grandmother took art in school in the mid-1800s and kept all of her work from it, some of which Mellen now displays in her home. Some of the paintings, she said, are almost 200 years old.
“I think it’s interesting to look at. My mom’s mom was very talented, and she didn’t do anything with it,” Trammell said. “… To me, that’s an example of if you have something you enjoy doing like that, you should pursue it and try to make the most of it.”
Mellen discovered her interest in art after Trammell went to college, and she was delighted when her daughter, who said she always loved art as a child, eventually became interested in painting, as well.
After Trammell graduated and moved back to Mountain Brook, she took her first art class as an adult and continued painting for fun for the next 10 years. Just a few years ago, she took her first oil painting class at Alabama Art, where she quickly found that she loved oil painting more than acrylics. Shortly after, she began selling her art at shows and occasionally making commissions, just like her mom.
In 2013, Mellen and Trammell did their first show together at the annual Art in the Village, put on by the Mountain Brook Art Association. Just a couple years ago, Trammell joined her mother in displaying at the Bohemian Art Gallery. Over time, they have come to appreciate their artistic lineage more and more.
“It’s just fun that it goes back generations, just to be able to see it, see the paintings that my mom has, that her grandmother and great-grandmother did,” Trammell said. “While it’s not necessarily a style that people today would want, it’s really cool to have these.”
Her mom agreed they’re very different in their styles of painting, but it has proven to be an advantage when they show and sell their art together.
Trammell said their colors work well side-by-side because of the contrast of the muted landscape colors to the brighter colors she uses in her abstract paintings. More people tend to buy them when they sell together, Mellen said.
Trammell said when she started selling her paintings like her mother, she learned how it can be intimidating for artists to “put themselves out there” for people to judge. Mellen said when she first started showing and selling art, she felt the same way.
“When you sell one, it just is kind of amazing that someone really, really wants to pay money for your art to hang in their house. It’s definitely a good feeling, flattering, for someone to want a piece of your art,” Trammell said.
They hope to do more duo shows in the future. For more information about buying their paintings, visit kesslercollection.com/bohemian-mountain-brook. Go to Trammell’s Instagram @katherinetrammellart.