For more than four decades, Arizona-based painter, Ed Mell, has charmed the public with his vibrant images of the Sonoran Desert and the Colorado Plateau. The beauty and veracity of his paintings give testimony to his love of his native surroundings.

Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Mell grew up in what was then just a small desert oasis, leaving when he enrolled in the Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles, California. After completing his courses in 1967, he accepted a position with a large advertising firm in New York City. A year later, he and a friend started their own illustration studio and began to work for clients that included Volkswagen, Trans World Airlines, and National Lampoon Magazine. The new business was very successful but, in 1970, while teaching a summer art program on the Hopi reservation in northern Arizona, Mell began to consider moving back to Arizona and devoting himself to creating fine art.

Read the full article in the May/June 2022 issue.

Tilted Range

Oil
15” by 30”

Sidestepper

Bronze
24” by 20” by 18”