I really liked Son Antem when I visited. The grounds are beautifully kept, and there’s something about the olive trees and the light beneath them that stayed with me. Those soft, broken patches of sunlight on the ground. It’s a lovely place to spend time.
And that’s probably where I’d start in explaining the artwork. I want some of that feeling to come indoors with you. You’ve been outside, you come back to the villa, and there’s a connection between what you’ve just enjoyed and what’s on the wall.
The operations manager told me that the resort sits on former agricultural land. I liked knowing that. It gives you another way of looking at the place, thinking about the life it had before the villas and the golf courses arrived. There’s more to it than you might pick up on during a holiday.
Melissa Rey’s work feels very comfortable here. Trees are something she returns to often in her painting, and for this project she was interested in the olive trees, particularly the way sunlight falls through their branches. Which made sense to me, having been there.
“This piece, created for Son Antem, draws its inspiration from the serene elegance of olive trees, in particular how the sun leaves dappled light on the ground below them. The gold veins are the setting sun dancing through contorted branches, reflecting the timeless beauty and resilience of olive trees. The artwork evokes a sense of harmony between the natural world and human creativity, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the enchanting aura of the Mediterranean landscape.””
Her paintings have these soft, overlapping areas of colour: cream, muted green, warm brown and pink. Some shapes suggest branches; others feel more like the patches of light and shade beneath them. I like having that room to look at a painting and find different things in it.
The gold leaf is a lovely part of the olive-tree piece. Melissa describes the gold veins as “the setting sun dancing through contorted branches”, which explains it rather well. The fine lines catch the light across the painted surface, so the material becomes part of what she’s describing. There’s something pleasing about that.
We also included a work by El Baker inspired by Joan Miró. He’s a useful person to bring into a conversation about Mallorca. He made the island his permanent home in 1956, and its landscape and light were important to his work. That connection gives El’s piece a place in the collection, alongside Melissa’s interest in the trees themselves.
Of course, all of this has to feel right in the villas. There’s already warmth in the terracotta floors, the timber and the woven finishes, and the colours in the paintings sit comfortably with those materials.
I think that’s what I’m looking for here. Artwork that feels at home in the rooms, with something of the grounds still present. The light under those olive trees was one of the things I enjoyed most about Son Antem. It’s good to find a little of it inside.
More of Melissa’s work can be explored at:
www.melissareyart.com
