Every experience shapes an artist, and Melissa Mason‘s journey is proof that the most unexpected paths can lead to the most authentic art. The early years spent as a registered nurse weren’t a detour from creativity; they were foundational to it. Teaching her about care, presence, and the profound act of truly seeing another living being. When Melissa transitioned to full-time artist, she carried these gifts with her. But Melissa’s connection to horses stretches back even further than her nursing career. As a child, she spent her free time studying these beautiful animals and practiced capturing every detail. Inspired by their power and grace, her love for horses remained persistent. When that dream finally materialized in adulthood of owning her own horse, all of the pieces finally fell into place. The horses she’d been drawing from imagination suddenly became real: their energy, their spirit, their unpredictability. Today, her canvases explode with movement and color, where bold marks collide with dripping paint to create abstract work that doesn’t just depict horses, it channels their raw, untamed energy.
Here at Equine Instincts, we had the pleasure of interviewing Melissa to learn more about her embrace of chaos, her spontaneous creative process, and how she lets the paint itself guide her hand.
What Does the Creative Process Look Like?
For Melissa, painting is less about careful planning and more about embracing the unknown. Her process begins not with sketches or studies, but with paint hitting canvas, dripping and flowing until something emerges from the chaos. “I’ll just start putting colors and shapes on and figure it out,” she explains with refreshing honesty. “I normally start by dripping paint and adding things to the canvas, then finding the shape in them.”
This experimental approach is what makes Melissa’s work so unique. She doesn’t fight the paint or force it into predetermined forms. Rather, she collaborates with it, responding to each splash and drip as if the paint is telling her what the piece needs to become. Instead of imposing control, she follows where it wants to go. “It’s really experimental. If it works, I’ll keep going,” she says. Using the manes of her horses for example, what began as a test in technique to get texture and flow became a staple in many of her pieces.
Most Challenging Aspect?
When asked about the most challenging part of her work, Melissa’s answer reveals the central tension in her practice: “Starting and knowing when to stop. Not overdoing it and knowing when to be done.” It’s a struggle familiar to many artists, but particularly acute for someone whose process is so intuitive and spontaneous.
Starting is all about entering the creative flow—that state where thinking stops and creation begins, where the analytical mind steps aside and lets intuition take over. Once you’re in that flow state, momentum builds, and Melissa’s creativity is what makes the work come alive. However, knowing when to stop means breaking from that flow state long enough to truly see what’s on the canvas. The very spontaneity that gives Melissa’s work its energy and life also makes it more difficult to know when to step back and let the painting speak for itself. Creativity demands immersion, but it also requires the ability to surface at the right moment.
A Palette of Vibrant Energy
When asked about the colors and imagery in her paintings, Melissa explained these aren’t random choices. Her colors can reflect the energy and emotion in the moment, even if the meaning isn’t always immediately clear. “I just start painting. It’s more on meaning and energy,” she explains. This intuitive approach speaks to a deeper artistic philosophy, one where the act of creation itself becomes a form of discovery. By allowing her instincts to guide the initial stages of a piece, Melissa taps into something more authentic than what careful planning might yield. The canvas becomes a space where subconscious feelings can materialize before they’re fully understood or articulated.
Alongside the color choices, Melissa has been pushing herself to think more deliberately about the narrative behind her pieces, though she acknowledges “it can be a hard thing to put into words as opposed to sharing a feeling.” This tension between intuition and intention, lies at the heart of her evolving practice. For Melissa, this balancing act isn’t about constraining her instinctive process, but rather about building bridges between the raw energy she channels onto canvas and the stories that energy might tell. Melissa’s work lives in that impressive space where emotion becomes visible before it becomes verbal, where the viewer feels something before they can name what they’re feeling.
Call Girls: Playful Expression and Simple Backgrounds
Among Melissa’s body of work, “Call Girls” represents her approach to letting the subject shine. “I usually keep the backgrounds more simple to let the horse show through,” she explains. But the title and execution reveal something deeper, a sense of playfulness and personality that emerges from the work itself. It’s this kind of spontaneous recognition, finding personality and story in the marks and gestures that emerge during the painting process, that makes her work feel so alive. The horses aren’t just subjects; they’re characters with attitude and presence.
Slow Ride: Persistence and Evolution
While “Call Girls” represents spontaneous discovery, “Slow Ride” embodies the other side of Melissa’s practice: persistence through challenge. This piece was “reworked five times, and took a few months until I got it right.” Melissa spent countless hours adding layers of paint and reworking the horses until she felt satisfied with two heads in the painting. The willingness to rework this piece demonstrates Melissa’s commitment to following the painting wherever it needs to go, even when that means starting over and over again. “Slow Ride” carries not just the final vision but the accumulated knowledge of those five attempts, each one teaching her something about what the piece needed to become.
The Artist Behind the Work
In perhaps the interview’s most revealing moment, when faced with the playful question of what flavor of ice cream she would be, Melissa answered without hesitation: “Chocolate.” It’s her favorite flavor, she explains, no elaborate metaphor, no carefully constructed symbolism. Just an immediate, instinctive response.
That spontaneity isn’t just charming; it’s representative of how Melissa approaches her entire creative practice. Just as she didn’t pause to overthink the ice cream question, she doesn’t overthink her art. She trusts her first instincts, follows what feels right in the moment, and lets meaning emerge organically rather than forcing it from the start. Whether she’s choosing chocolate ice cream or deciding where the next brush stroke should fall, Melissa operates from the same place of intuitive confidence, a willingness to trust that the answer will reveal itself if she simply begins.
Art That Lives Where You Live
Melissa Mason’s work embodies the values of spontaneity, boldness, and emotional authenticity. Her paintings don’t just hang on walls—they transform spaces with their energy and movement. Explore more of her artwork online at equineinstincts.com or in person at our Pop-Up gallery outside of Indoor Arena 2 at the World Equestrian Center.
For life-long equestrian Susan McClafferty, photographing horses isn’t just a job. It’s the intersection of everything she loves and is most passionate about. During the week, Susan works as a consultant, bringing innovation, problem-solving, and technical expertise to a large healthcare system.
For life-long equestrian Susan McClafferty, photographing horses isn’t just a job. It’s the intersection of everything she loves and is most passionate about. During the week, Susan works as a consultant, bringing innovation, problem-solving, and technical expertise to a large healthcare system.
2026 is off to a full gallop at Equine Instincts. January has been an exciting and incredibly busy start to the Florida season.
