By the Campfire

By the CampfireMelissa Lakey is an artist and illustrator based in Joshua Tree, California, where the windows of her art studio look out onto the Mojave Desert. Her colorful mixed media paintings explore the magic of the American Southwest, as well as night, summertime, road trips, solitude, and friendship. She creates work based on both real memories and imaginary places shed like to visit swimming, dreaming, in the sunshine and under the moonlight. About this

I like to imagine my paintings are moments in stories I wish I knew

Her striking naturalistic art is accompanied by fun scientific facts: Some trees have thinner root hairs than human hairs

Middle Notes: Soft Lavender Base

Teak - Smells like dry woods and earthy musk

This colorblock mechanical pencil set comes in a pack of 4 so you can stash one everywhere you're likely to be struck by a great idea or artistic vision

How to Be a Grown Up by Raffi Grinberg fills in those critical gaps with engaging

This series of paintings reflects on the ways we seek solitude and connection in the landscapes we inhabit

Set in Brisbane share houses

emerge in thread

your ultimate guide to cozy

OH and can be found frequenting the nearby Cuyahoga Valley National Park for inspiration for her work

all carefully reproduced to preserve the hand-painted aesthetic and packaged sustainably in her Virginia studio