Meet Melissa Haiden

Melissa explores colour, memory and the sensory experience of the natural world through painting. Her work moves between florals, landscapes and abstraction — capturing the emotional experience of place, not just how it looks.

Working intuitively in oil, acrylic, ink and mixed media, she builds layered pieces through colour, erasure and expressive mark-making. Flowers, gardens, water, changing skies and everyday moments become the starting point.

Before painting, Melissa trained in Theatre and Performance at UCT and worked professionally as an actress in theatre, film and television. That performance background still shapes the physicality and emotional immediacy of her work.

Her recent practice explores beauty, memory, motherhood and place.