Mel Lucy Bruneel (born Mélanie Lambrechts, 1994) is a Belgian artist based in Antwerp. Her love for art arose when, as a child, she nosed through mother's paint tubes, brushes and canvases. The house she grew up in was filled with creative materials and was surrounded by nature. Her search for her own answers began here and she found refuge in film, music, photography, drawing and painting. In her teenage years she spent most of her free time photographing, filming and editing. She started her studies as an Assistant Director at RITSC in Brussels, where she learned about her passion for drawing and painting. She pursued Visual Arts in her next academic year.

​

Her search for recognizable visual references, which are photographed and translated into a painting, are usually the basis of a new work. These photos are digitally edited or used as a collage.

​

Bruneel works with smooth brush strokes, layer upon layer, idea after idea. While she often does color studies before she starts, she also allows room for change during the actual painting. In this process where imagination is given free rein, something magical arises for her, as if she were painting under hypnosis. At a later stage she goes deeper into the symbolism by adding small details in her work, such as birds, weather conditions, existing locations, poetic titles, etc. Lovers of Antwerp will also recognize various locations in the city in her work. The type of birds she paints symbolize different things, we have a nightingale in ‘in another lifetime’ and swallows in ‘the bigger picture’. In cultural history birds had and have many different meanings. The viewers who take the time to notice these details will see another context to her work.