Mel Lamanna is a printmaker/painter living and working in Dunsborough, Western Australia.

Life experiences from a multi-cultural upbringing, travel, and a diverse career in ecotourism, arts and Aboriginal Heritage have given her a unique insight into people, place and culture.

In 2016, Mel enhanced her printmaking skills at Art Print Residence and Studio Asssalt in Spain, which led to her inclusion in the Spanish publications Romancero Gitano (2017) and Luces de Bohemia (2018).

On her return to Australia, Mel graduated from Edith Cowan University with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Visual Arts, and began working from her printmaking studio in Dunsborough to run workshops and create works which are in the private collections of local and interstate patrons.

Exhibitions featuring Mel’s work include the group show Sketching the South West (2019) at BRAG, a solo event during Margaret River Region Open Studios (2020, 2021 and 2025), and the group show North, South, East, West (2024) at Angus Watkins Studio.

In 2024, Mel won the Ludlow Art Prize for Australian Landscape Painting and was a finalist in the City of Rockingham Art Award, Cossack Art Awards and Perth Royal Art Prize for Landscapes.

Invitational exhibitions in 2025 include Christian Fletcher Gallery’s Art Is Collaborative Event and Cross Currents, a print exchange with L’Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara at Palazzo Malaspina in Italy.

Mel’s current work continues to explore apprehensions concerning the dynamics of life and the struggle for resilience in an everchanging world. Throughout the creative process, Mel reworks the initial sketch using different mediums, gaining a new perspective with each process.

The monotype is a form of printmaking that features strongly in Mel’s oeuvre, due to the gestural nature of the medium. It allows an immediate, undiluted connection between self, subject matter and surface, providing her with the perfect means of communicating her observations of the mutable nature of people and the world they live in.