Melissa Payne Baker

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Melissa appears to have life down to a fine art.

As a successful, collected artist, Melissa started painting with her best friend on what they'd call "Artist Night." The two would pour a glass of wine, sit down in front of a canvas and talk and paint. Her friend would fawn over the paintings Melissa created and told her she was crazy not to sell them. After the friend passed away unexpectedly in a car accident, Melissa decided to donate one of her paintings to a charity auction.

The painting went almost immediately at the auction and someone from the event bought another one the next day from her. It spawned several inquiries and garnered her first clients. She now sells her work at Huff Harrington in Buckhead, Sophia's Fine Art in Charlotte and galleries in Chattanooga and Nashville.

The abstract artist enjoys painting simple items like dragonflies, landscapes and angels. "I paint really loose," says the 34 year-old. "I admire painters that paint tight and realistic, but my style is very unrestrained." She even has a class called "Painting Loose with Melissa Payne Baker" to get people to unshackle their artist within.

Melissa paints in her Smyrna home with a palette knife and not a brush, which gives her paintings a very thick look. She doesn't draw or plan out her paintings and prefers to begin not knowing where the painting will take her.

Raised in small town Hernando, MS it's no wonder she came to art and painting as her life's calling. Her mother has painted since she can remember and is a muralist in Memphis. Her paternal grandfather is an oil painter and Melissa grew up painting with him and her grandmother and paint. Melissa's brother and father both fabricate metals too.

The Ole Miss grad spent her early career assisting an interior designer and says, "If I wasn't a painter, I'd love to be an interior designer. I get so inspired by different rooms and spaces." After selling paintings for a while, she had the courage to strike out on her own and leave the interior design position she had

The best compliment she's ever received? "A friend of mine was in someone's home and saw a painting above the mantle, 'I think that's a Melissa Payne Baker,' she said. I was so flattered that someone recognized the style of my work as me. I love that!"