Melissa La Bozzetta Painting Nudes

Australian-Italian artist, Melissa La Bozzetta  paintings which include nudes, abstracts and sculptures hang in France, Italy, New York and Rome in addition to her Prahran, Melbourne studio.

Melissa describes her childhood as colourful and extremely strict. 

Melissa says: "I started to draw at age 4 as I was rarely allowed to go out and play with the other kids. I found solace, freedom and strength in my art. As a teenager my room was covered wall to wall in art. Each creation helped me work through a lot of pain that I carried and helped build my resilience."

Melissa met her husband, ex premier league footballer, Steve Mautone, in a Melbourne cafe. Steve played for West Ham and Reading. Upon retiring overseas, Steve became Melbourne Victory's Goalkeeper Coach for 10 years winning 3 premierships in his time at Victory.

Melissa says: "After we had our twins, I started to paint again when they were around 8 months old. Steve would come home and find the babies and walls covered in specs of paint."

Whilst her family discouraged her from becoming an artist and pleaded with her not to paint nudes, Melissa listened to her intuition and is now a well known international artist with paintings and sculptures in the Louvre, Singulart France, Rome, New York and Australia. 

Australians flock to her gallery in Prahran to commission nude self portraits, feeling liberation in their stories and journey being told through art. Melissa has male and female clients of all ages but she has cultivated a significant demand for women wanting nude self portraits.  

Similar to the personal expression found through tattoo artwork, Melissa is often asked to work words that symbolise their story, into the portraits.

Melissa says: "Half of my artwork sold are nudes and half are abstract pieces. 

My  abstract pieces help me to reconnect to my Italian Heritage. Interwoven with my life and home in Australia."

Each abstract canvas becomes a portal to the memories and dreams of life in Italy, interwoven with the beauty and sense of belonging she has found and fallen in love with, here in Melbourne..

Melissa was also recognised as the first Australian Ambassador to represent the Internationally renowned Non-Violence Foundation, to which she contributed a blue and gold 'knotted gun' sculpture titled 'Ocean of Love'. The blue represents an ocean of trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence and faith and the gold represents countries worldwide, as the master healer.

Having built an international following on Instagram, Melissa's art captured notable attention and was selected to be featured in the Louvre. Her art is now in Singulart, a french gallery as well as in Rome, New York and Melbourne, Australia. Melissa plans to open up her own galleries in Paris and Rome within the next year.

She has also painted celebrities but her passion is to capture the stories of her clients in nude artwork and body sculptures.

Melissa's Prahran, Melbourne gallery has a waitlist for nudes.

www.melissalabozzetta.com

Nudes cost $6000 150cm x 120cm

She also sells stunning abstracts and sculptures.