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Photo by Terry Brown
Melissa Burgess, Datura Obscura — Sears Avalon, 2014, oil on birch, 16 x 12 inches
Photo by Terry Brown
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Photo by Terry Brown
Melissa Burgess, Harmonious History of House and Tree — Harris Brothers House, 2014, oil on birch, 18-by-12 inches
Photo by Terry Brown
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Photo by Terry Brown
Melissa Burgess, Harris Brothers House, 2014, oil on birch, 18-by-24 inches
Photo by Terry Brown
Painter Melissa Burgess has built her career on painting historical buildings, though not necessarily the kind that are listed on the National Register.
“I paint buildings that hold history, not historic buildings in the sense that you would assume,” she explains. “I paint a lot of neighborhoods and buildings that are overlooked.”
This spring, after riding along with Sears house expert Rosemary Thornton as she conducted a “windshield survey” of Richmond's catalog kit homes, Burgess was inspired to begin a series of paintings based on the houses Thornton identified.
Burgess first became interested in kit houses about 15 years ago after researching them and finding numerous examples in her neighborhood south of the James River.
“I was captivated by the story that goes along with them,” she says. “The fact that you could buy a house and good quality materials from a catalog and put it together yourself. Today, it is an odd concept.”
Burgess, a self-taught artist, began painting Richmond houses and neighborhoods while she lived in Boston about 20 years ago. She returned to her hometown to save her from making trips back and forth to create art from her favorite subject matter.
The daughter of an architect, Burgess says she has always been drawn to older buildings. “There is such a diverse palette of architecture in this town,” she says. “I have a never-ending array of subject matter.”
She has painted three catalog kit houses so far, two of which are located on Forest Hill Avenue, a main thoroughfare. “I doubt many people know they are Sears houses,” she says, “and yet people pass them by every day.”
Burgess paints with oils on birch plywood and works from photos. “I try to capture the atmosphere — the air and smells and sounds — and include that with the factual subject matter," she says. "If the day is really humid, that is going to be in the painting. You can just feel it.”
Burgess has plans to paint more catalog kit homes and eventually show them. “These paintings are just an extension of what I have been doing all along,” she says, “capturing buildings and architecture in this town as a means of documentation before destruction or gentrification and just to draw attention to different styles and forms of architecture.”
