Melinda McConnaughey Copper was born in 1952 and has been fascinated with animals and making things with her hands since she was a toddler.
Copper’s interest in the animal kingdom led her to first pursue a degree in Biology at Florida State University. It was a different era, however; one in which women in the sciences rarely attained the level of independence or respect found by a Jane Goodall or a Mary Leakey. Dissatisfied with the potential of a career as a lab assistant, she shifted her focus to art, her other real passion. “I make things,’ says the compulsively creative Copper. “If I have pencils, I draw; if I have brushed, I paint; if I have clay, I sculpt…”
After many years of instruction through the college level in a variety of media, she became disappointed by the relative lack of instruction in technique she received in art school. She describes her approach to art as one that revels as much in the process as in the product. It was this curiosity about the process of painting that led to her trademark subject matter.
While vacationing in Paris, the artist spent some time in the Louvre. She marveled at how, in the age of the great art academies, everyone received a solid grounding in the “how to” of painting. “I was envious,” she admits. Then she saw a half-finished painting hanging in one of the galleries. She discovered that one of the keys to the greatness of the great masters was to be found in the underpainting, the layers of paint closest to the canvas, beneath the final image. While throngs of tourists passed by her and her ‘treasure’ to see the Mona Lisa, Coppper studied every square inch of the small painting. The next time she entered her studio, she began the adventure of teaching herself the art and mysteries of underpainting.
As she gained confidence in her adaptation of the techniques of the famous artists, she decided to try copying some of their paintings. But foreseeing her own boredom with exact duplication of a famous work, she decided to make the painting really her own. And so she fell back on her love for animals and her off beat sense of humor combining them with her love of painting. The resulting works are delightful and oddly insightful character studies of pets.
Most often, it is the painting that comes first; she selects a work that has special appeal to her while visiting museums or poring over museum catalogs in her studio. Then she finds the animal that fits it. Occasionally, especially with commissions, the animal may come first with the painting being selected based on the subjects “personality and demeanor.” Copper is of the opinion that animals look better in the original paintings’ clothes than people do anyway. “I’m always surprised at how good those animals look in those clothes! Here are these fascinating costumes, and they’re worn by such boring-looking people!” she jokes.
A full-time artist all of her adult life, Copper begins her day by taking care of the dogs and cats, then working in the yard for a few hours before she retreats to her studio. A small cottage-like building, it was built by her husband and son on the 20 wooded acres they share with the local wildlife. “It’s not such a big stretch to make animals human,” Copper reports, and adds that animals make especially agreeable portrait subjects. “They are generally delighted,” she explains and, unlike people, “they almost never complain about the nose.”
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