David Melby with an Award-Winning Landscape Painting
David Melby was born in Wichita June 8, 1942. After graduating from East High School in 1960, he attended the Kansas City Art Institute, earned a BFA
from Wichita State and an MFA from the University of Nebraska, with additional studies at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel, Mexico.
He had a career in teaching at Iowa State University, the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, the Kansas City Art Institute, Rockhurst College, the U.S. Federal Penitentiary and St. Mary’s College in Leavenworth, his home in 1989.
Exhibitions of his landscape art have appeared at Western Illinois University, Sioux City Art Center, Mitchell Museum, Joslyn Art Museum, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Des Moines Art Center, Wichita Art Museum, Gwend Jay Gallery in Chicago, and Sandzen Museum.
He passed away February, 2014 and was interred at White Chapel Memorial Gardens, Wichita. He was preceded in death by his parents Arvid A. Melby and Evelyn Zellner Melby.
Editor’s Note: A collection of David’s landscapes is in our Gallery section.
Although I did not know David Melby, I recognize an honest representation of the Midwest in his paintings, a feeling for wide open spaces where nature still has dominance. His sky paintings ring so true. I remember living at the northeast edge of town where farm fields were only 2 or 3 blocks away. It is where I remember meadowlarks as the sound track for the sky theater’s daily drama. David’s paintings portray our roots. They are significant keystones to our collective memory. David’s paintings live on as a documentary of our past.