The Art of Dredging: Melvyn King

The Art of Dredging is an exhibition of work by Melvyn King, a painter and printmaker whose work draws primarily on the landscapes and seascapes around Harwich, where he has lived since 1981. He is particularly interested in the shifting effects of weather and light, capturing the atmosphere of the Essex coast in both figurative and abstract works.

Melvyn King (b. 1949) trained at St Albans School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design, and the Royal Academy Schools, where he held a David Murray landscape award. He has worked on the Essex coast since 1981, when he and Daphne Sandham moved to Harwich and joined a small but active artistic community there. By 1992 they had helped to establish Bodgeners Gallery, an artist-led cooperative, along with the Lean-to-Press, a small publishing and printing venture producing hand-printed artist books.

A long-standing member of Colchester Art Society, he has served on its general committee and holds the roles of Curator of the Permanent Collection and Archivist. He has helped curate several exhibitions at the Minories, among them Peter Coker: Force of Nature, co-curated with Simon Carter in 2019, and My Family and Other Artists in 2025. His work is held in private collections and in the East Contemporary Art Collection at the University of Suffolk.