Melissa Baron: SEEK TO TOUCH

January 26 - March 27, 2026

Robert Genn wrote, “It’s good to trust the skies. There’s a lifetime in them.” That idea has guided my last decade of painting, where skies and light become metaphors for time, memory, and change. Though varied in subject, the work is unified by rhythm, colour, and an exploration of how we understand—and misunderstand—our lives.

This exhibition brings together three collections: skies, abstraction, and the home. The skies series captures Alberta sunrises and storms, using expressive colour to reflect resilience through life’s turbulence. The abstract works emerged after my son’s birth; their twinkling textures echo the night skies seen by new parents awake in the dark, balancing joy and exhaustion. The home collection turns inward, using collage, textiles, and children’s artwork to explore domestic spaces lit by shifting sunbeams and shaped by emotional complexity.

Across all three bodies of work runs a meditation on instability, connection, and the constant flux of understanding. We are always catching up to our own lives, navigating the gap between experience and comprehension. Yet we continue to reach for one another—trusting the skies, the storms, and the people who change before our eyes. ~ Melissa Baron

Melissa Baron is an expressive painter living in Edmonton, Alberta. From an early age, she recalls watercolour painting with her mother at the family kitchen table. Baron studied art first at the University of Alberta, then at Julian Ashton Art School in Australia, developing an understanding of both contemporary and classical art techniques. She combines her love of art with her other passion, teaching art at Ecole Secondaire Beaumont Composite High School. Her work has been featured across the province through the Alberta Foundation for the Arts’ Travelling Exhibit Program, and she has exhibited at venues such as the Edmonton International Airport and Gallery @501. Her work is part of the University of Alberta’s teaching collection and Strathcona County’s permanent collection.

www.melissabaron.ca