In the coming months, you can discover the new exhibition by visual artist Melanie Calis, both online and at the By Mölle atelier in Dalfsen. Her paintings are soft, layered explorations of human connection, emotion, and the space between people. You are warmly welcome to visit or explore the works online.
Melanie Calis (35) is an Amsterdam-based artist who explores what happens beneath the surface: the magnetic attraction between people, an uncomfortable tension, or the universal longing to be seen and understood. With earthy tones and bright contrasts, she shows how softness and rawness can exist side by side. Her paintings depict bodies seeking one another, arms embracing, hands reaching out. Together, they form an ode to the complexity and beauty of human relationships.
can you tell us a bit more about yourself?
“Besides painting, I work three days a week as an occupational therapist with people who are blind or visually impaired. I meet many different kinds of people who have to work extra hard to find their place in society. Their stories often touch me, and I take that with me into my art. The combination of working with people and painting alone in my studio is very important to me. Both sides are equally necessary and keep me balanced.”
when did you start painting?
“As a child, I was always drawing and painting. When I moved to Amsterdam, I took painting lessons every Saturday for years in a small basement near Stadionplein. That’s where I learned new techniques and was taught by artists from the art academy. In 2019, I decided I wanted to take it more seriously and started sharing my work step by step. Since then, things have grown: small exhibitions, art fairs, and eventually the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. There I learned to think more conceptually, to feel freer in all possibilities, and above all, to trust what I create.” 
what inspires you?
“When I’m open, almost everything. But for the series now on display at By Mölle, I was especially inspired by the deeply human need for connection — with yourself and with others. I find it both moving and fascinating how everyone, throughout life, discovers their own obstacles and possibilities in this, and tries to find a way. The desires, fears, and emotions that come with it give me an endless amount of material to express.”
how would you describe your work?
“As melancholic, poetic, playful, and sensitive. I also describe my paintings as layered, both literally and figuratively. I work with many layers, which create depth and tension. I often use warm, earthy tones such as brown, ochre, and soft pink. Warmth and depth are, I realize now, probably not coincidentally, also elements that exist in human connection. In some paintings, I include small lines as a reference to time, endlessly and finitely present at once. Painting, for me, is a way to discover new things within myself. Freedom and the absence of restriction are essential for that process. It means my work keeps changing, something that might be hard for a viewer to categorize, but it’s necessary for me to keep growing, both as a person and as an artist.”
what do you enjoy most about your work?
“That something comes into being that wasn’t there before. You start with an idea or a feeling, and slowly something takes shape. Sometimes it touches people in ways I never expected. That’s what I love most, when a painting opens a conversation. A client once told me that the painting she bought reminded her of the moment she could ‘see’ her son again — the title of the work — after a long journey. She hung it in the hallway by her front door. Reactions like that are very special. And the fact that a painting becomes part of someone’s home, part of their everyday life, feels quite incredible.”
what is the essence of your work?
“I think the essence is that everything is allowed to be there, both in the way the painting looks and in the emotions or feelings it represents.”
travel and nature often appear in your work. what do they mean to you?
“I really relate to the saying: ‘Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.’ It might sound a bit cliché, but I feel most myself when I’m in the forest or the mountains. That’s why I always bring my painting materials when I travel. I notice that traveling keeps opening my perspective — new landscapes, new people, unexpected moments. All of that finds its way back into my work, sometimes subtly through a mood I want to capture, sometimes directly through a scene or composition I come across in the wild. Painting outdoors challenges me to make quicker, more intuitive choices.”
how did your collaboration with By Mölle begin?
“I received a message that you liked my work. When I learned more about you — your use of natural materials, sustainability, the warmth everything radiates — I immediately felt a spark. We share the same values: caring for each other and for the world, and a love for timeless, honest things. When hanging my paintings in your atelier, I was surprised by how complementary our work is. It enhances and strengthens each other. There’s care and attention in everything.”
The paintings of Melanie Calis are now on view online and at the By Mölle atelier in Dalfsen. You are warmly welcome to visit and explore her work in person or online.