Melissa Del Pinto once leaned so close to Caravaggio’s Bacchus (1598) at Florence’s Uffizi Gallery that she set off the alarms. “I would get really, really close to see the brushstrokes and how they captured the light,” she says with a laugh. The Montreal native spent two years in Italy after college, eager to study Renaissance masterpieces firsthand.
Her fascination with technical mastery, combined with an intuitive grasp of nature and geometry, anchors Melissa’s growing presence in Southwest Florida. Based in Montreal, the artist has been visiting and working in Naples for 20 years, gaining a following for her avian works and luminous Gulf skyscapes.
With a practice as disciplined as it is approachable, Melissa renders natural forms with scientific precision, using classical layering techniques and balancing light-dark contrasts to achieve 3D depth. She studies the birds outside her window at home and uses a taxidermied crow as a reference to perfect anatomical drawings. Layered geometric elements lend a contemporary feel to her traditional realism. The approach holds steady across mediums—from oil paintings on canvas, wood and furnishings to site-specific commercial and residential works and urban murals.
Birds anchor much of her oeuvre, a fixation that began in kindergarten with a teacher who raised canaries in the classroom and entered Melissa’s drawings in contests where she beat students twice her age. Today, her paintings reveal eyes that glint with layered depth, wings that seem to stir the air and claws curling tautly, ready to clutch.
Shift I, 2024 48” X 60” Acrylic on canvas
melissa del pinto naples artist realistic painting shift 1
Best known for her distinctive avian studies, Melissa finds fresh inspiration along Naples’ shores. In her Shift series, Gulf skies are fragmented by invisible lines, creating dimensional puzzles.
Her precision recently took center stage at Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens’ illustrious gala auction. Melissa’s distinctive avian studies made her a natural choice for last November’s In the Land of Crowned Creatures-themed fundraiser. After painting black-crowned cranes for the gala’s invitations, she decided to auction the original oil painting. She captured the bird’s signature crown with hundreds of pin-straight feathers rendered in metallic gold to catch the light. A guest matched the winning bid, generating $60,000 for the zoo. The piece was then donated back to the nonprofit for public display.
Nearly all of Melissa’s artwork begins with a reference photo from a client or her own camera roll, but she typically lets intuition guide the final result. The graphic shapes across her repertoire draw from her interest in sacred geometry, the belief that recurring patterns and forms carry symbolic meaning. In her 2016 The Merkaba In Flight 2, a black-capped chickadee flutters in front of a merkaba, a star-like figure associated with consciousness.
In Southwest Florida, her practice has expanded from birds to skies, translating Gulf light and atmosphere onto canvas. During her first artist residency in Naples, she began capturing local landscapes, often showcasing clouds laced with gold to recreate the Gulf’s distinct luminosity—the way sunlight breaks through cotton-like clouds over the water. Her seascapes use diamond dust and iridescent pigment to recreate atmospheric patterns that we feel but may not consciously see.
Goldie, 2023 Oil and gold pigment on wood panel
melissa del pinto naples artist realistic painting goldie
In the Shift series, clouds are bisected with invisible lines, creating dimensional puzzles that provoke opposing reactions. Some viewers see gathering storms; others see silver linings. “I always say, if emotion had to be painted, it would be in the form of a sky,” Melissa adds.
Her Naples connection has been decades in the making, seeded by early mentorship and strengthened through recurring seasons of work along the Gulf. Melissa’s path traces through Montreal’s Dawson College, where she studied under revered Naples artist Carmelo Blandino. As a professor, Carmelo tested her resolve by deliberately scoring her low at first. “I didn’t let him win, though,” Melissa says. “Sometimes, [I’d stay] in the school until the janitor kicked me out.”
Years later, in the early 2000s, he invited her to Naples and introduced her to interior designer Judith Liegeois, who fell in love with Melissa’s work and cites the Wanderlust series among her favorites. In the 2011 paintings, lifelike birds with whimsical expressions are housed in baroque frames made from found objects.
Photography by Christina Bankson
Photography by Christina Bankson
Photography by Christina Bankson
Photography by Christina Bankson
When Judith launched her artist-in- residence program, Melissa was her first guest—an arrangement that now repeats every season. Working with Judith’s team, Melissa transforms clients’ walls with custom artworks and murals pulsing with florals, fluttering birds and geometric precision. For a recent powder bath, she drew an owl’s flight path across wood-grain wallpaper—black lines that navigate corners and wrap around doorframes before forming wing outlines. “It’s not just something that’s pretty or complements the room, it’s got a more personal touch to it,” she says.
Bridging fine art and decorative craft, Melissa’s style is inherently suited for domestic spaces. Familiar bird subjects strike an approachable chord and appeal to eco-minded Gulf Coast collectors, while her ornithological precision invites closer observation. Geometric borders temper the intensity of her naturalist detail, keeping the work from overwhelming a room. Unlike abstract or hyperrealistic pieces that demand extended study, Melissa’s work adapts to how people live with art, offering casual appreciation or deeper reflection depending on the mood.
The dialogue continues off the walls—the artist might turn a vintage chair into a canvas, painting birds that wrap around curved backs while maintaining precise detail. A recently commissioned powder room mirror showcases her assemblage technique in full rococo splendor: shells, small figurines, toys and decorative objects are layered into a frame that’s painted bone-white, creating a dramatic contrast against the room’s surrounding floral wallpaper.
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You Pick Me Up, 2024 Oils on wood panel, photography by Christina Bankson
melissa del pinto naples artist realistic flower painting
Based in Montreal, Melissa has worked in Naples for 20 years and maintains a seasonal residency at Judith Liegeois Designs. Last year, she contributed to Naples Zoo’s gala, where her black-crowned crane painting raised $60,000.
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Photography by Christina Bankson
melissa del pinto naples artist realistic painter
Melissa’s cross-disciplinary, cross- cultural perspective enriches her Quebec and Florida practices. Back home, prestigious commissions include work for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and a 3D installation for Shopify’s headquarters, as well as floral murals at more than 60 Starbucks locations. Beyond commercial success, Melissa uses her art for community impact. For the past three years, she and Carmelo have collaborated on projects addressing social issues in Montreal. This April, they contributed to a 12-panel mural that raised more than $1 million for MultiCaf, a nonprofit fighting food insecurity in the city. Fusing his lush florals with her avian realism, the piece explodes with color. Melissa’s lyrical seagull, egret and betta fish navigate the swirl of abstract strokes and neon drips, signifying hope, resilience, balance and grace in chaos.
A free spirit with a restless imagination, Melissa is always hunting for her next creative challenge. She believes the beauty of being an artist is to push boundaries and try new “weird” things, and she likes to inspire others to do the same. “You’re an artist for a reason. You’re meant to create things,” she says. “Don’t question it so much—just go with it.”