Melissa Verdier became an art teacher upon receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Briarcliff College, NY, and M.A. at Western Connecticut State University at Danbury. She continued fine art studies at SUNY Puchase, NY, as well as through travels throughout the U.S. and abroad. Verdier has worked in various media with a focus on figure and landscape studies doing studio work and independent studies in watercolor, printmaking, and pastel.

       She has been included in numerous juried shows, winning prizes throughout Connecticut including Silvermine, Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport, Mystic Museum of Art, Ridgefield Guild of Artists, New Canaan Society for the Arts, and in New York with the Historical Society Museums of Pound Ridge and Bedford.  She was juried in as an elected artist with Mystic Museum of Art, CT  and is represented at Artists’ Coop Gallery in Westerly, RI.  Her works are in private and corporate collections throughout the U. S. and Canada.

       “I was fortunate to enjoy art at a very young age while observing my father working in oils. He was a writer by trade but artist at heart.  Our many museum visits encouraged my creative side to discover my own styles. My paintings have mainly featured landscapes, waterscapes, and places where I have traveled or lived. My use of analogous colors (three colors close to each other on the color wheel) creates a calming and painterly effect."