The paintings on glass shown here were created by Richard at the end of his life. He was still pushing himself to innovate. Most of the works shown here were painted on storm windows, iteratively scraping the paint back off, applying more, wiping away sections with paint stripper, and adding layers of paper.
They tend to be 30″ in the longest dimension and 20″ in the shortest. These works can be hung like traditional paintings or they can sit on a shelf or other surface and lean against the wall.
“Many of my abstracts are made from someone else’s junk, scraps reassembled.”
“I’m always looking for a way to make something have a 2nd chance. Industrialization became the rule for saving these ‘Homemade’ frames. Don’t throw it away but save it = ‘junk art’.” – Richard Melander
Q: Why did you decide to work on storm windows?
A: They were there. They were left over from when we bought the house. I couldn’t see throwing them away so I stuck them over in the corner of the basement.
Initially I worked with traditional materials, with canvas boards in glass frames. Then I started working directly on the glass that comes in the frames. At some point I remembered the windows downstairs and I thought why not use this glass? I already have it….
With the first window, I took the frame off and worked on the glass, but then I thought, what do I do with this glass… why not just use the frame it already has? There are no rules. I don’t know how anything is going to come out until it is done. One thing leads to another. I think people’s reactions will run from I like it or I don’t like it. Artwork is its own justification. In other words, creating something for the sake of its own existence.