Melissa Tobia has been interested in doing art and drawing, as soon as she could hold a pencil.

As a child she liked to draw flowers, bunnies and cabbage patch faces. As a teenager she advanced to drawing a mix of topics like hands, portraits, animals and landscapes. Her mother used to save gift boxes for her to paint on as practice, and surprisingly found this to be a great surface in which to paint. She was particularly fascinated with a combination of watercolor finalized with pen-&-ink and enjoyed utilizing different techniques like stippling and crosshatching.

Art was her therapy. Art was her escape. She spent most of her spare time learning new techniques and improving her skills for drawing and painting. Her art teachers were impressed by her work and took her under their wing, and making her feel special, with one helping her prepare to get into college.

After receiving her A.A.S. degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology and her B.F.A. in Computer Art from the School of Visual Arts. She embarked on a career as a graphic designer for 27 years before deciding to dedicate more time to her art.

Presently, she is currently focused on flowers, portraits and landscapes, trying to capture an inside view, or macro, of the flower. Fascinated with texture and the use of very vivid colors, she likes to capture interesting views and make use of cropping at various angles.

Pastels, watercolors, colored pencils and oil or acrylic paint are her preferred tools. Subjects chosen for portraits are ones in which are not typically posed, but of the moment captured between the viewer and the subject, to tell a story.

Melissa is heavily influenced by the works of Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Degas and Magritte, and is especially fond of the works of impressionist and surrealist artists.

She is married and has two children, they currently reside in Long Island, NY.

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