About

Mel Ratliff is a mixed media painter, stained glass artist and weathered wood and metal Sculptor specializing in unique Southwest art. Many have said Mel’s paintings of the Navajo, Pueblo, and Spanish women of the Southwest are very reminiscent of paintings by the late Navajo artist R.C. Gorman with a unique style that is truly all his own.

Mel Ratliff grew up near Little Rock, Arkansas on 60 acres of tree-covered rural land. It was a Huckleberry Finn kind of paradise for him and his six younger siblings. They always had horses to ride and play on. They had chickens, milk cows, hunted and fished and, grew large vegetable gardens. His parents gave them free rein to play and do whatever we wanted to do on the land as long as we did our chores. It was a truly wonderful life. He says, “I believe this is where my great love for the outdoors was born.”

In high school, he took three years of art and mechanical drafting classes. Both of which he have used in business his entire adult life and still does.

After high school, he enrolled at Henderson State University, in Arkadelphia, Arkansas where he playing football on the college team and took art classes. He received no acceptance from the art instructors. They told him football and art did not mix and he should not be taking art classes. He finished his classes but was very discouraged and didn’t do art again for five years.

He took his first stained-glass class in 1984 and fell in love with it instantly. He soon opened a home-based Stained Glass Studio where he designed and sold hundreds of pieces of stained glass artwork. He had a reputation for great designs and quality of workmanship. In the spring of 1989, he was chosen as one of thirty stained-glass artists nationwide to be feathered in the 500-page book, “The Guild, A Sourcebook of American Craft Artist.”

In 1990, he relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he eventually opened his own business as a licensed Mechanical Contractor as well as doing art part time.

He is most proud of a large glass and metal wall sculpture he created for the boardroom of Albuquerque-based EMCORE Corporation. It depicts the “Long Walk of the Navajo" and commemorates the 1864 removal of 10,000 Navajo men, women and, children from Arizona, Utah and, New Mexico. They were forced to walk 450 miles to a prison camp near Fort Sumner in Eastern New Mexico. At least 200 died due to starvation and exposure. There was such a public outcry by the American public that it forced the US government to release them in 1886.

His series of “traditional” Native American and Spanish women has drawn a lot of praise. His style of painting is “Contemporary American Realism” and is uniquely my own. Even though our styles are very different, almost everyone who sees them say they are reminiscent of the late Navajo “Abstract” artist R.C. Gorman. He considers this a great compliment.

He prefers to paint in mixed media, using varying combinations of gouache, acrylic, pen and ink, colored pencil, graphite, watercolor, colored charcoal and soft pastels to create my brilliant colors. Artists that have influenced me the most over the past 20 years are G. E. Mullen, Doug West, R. C. Gorman, and most recently the brilliant colors and style of Santa Fe artist Jennifer Cavan.