Se plonger
Abstractions of the sea, to dive into and return to calm.
SE PLONGER : Three states of water
When I paint, I transmit energy, and whoever looks connects with it. Art does not explain; it invites. This series does not ask the viewer to look at the paintings. It asks them to dive into them. In French, SE PLONGER means to dive in. It is not just entering the water. It is letting yourself fall. It is surrendering. It is immersing yourself without resistance. These are the three states from which I work on the SE PLONGER series
Artist statement
Se plonger: to dive in. Not to look at the sea from the shore, but to step into it.
I chose the name Mar — "sea" in Spanish — because the sea is my way of being in the world. In my work it is not a landscape but an experience: what we feel when we let go, when we lose our footing, when we sink below the surface and discover that there, in the silence, everything takes on a different meaning.
Each painting in Se Plonger is an invitation to dive. There is a first moment of leaping, of courage, and then a descent into the depths, into what we usually avoid looking at. I am drawn to that threshold: the waterline where light meets depth, and the balance between the two, which I explore in parallel in my series Arriba y abajo (Above and Below).
I come from telecommunications engineering. From it I keep rigour, precision and a respect for structure. But that rigour serves something that cannot be measured: emotion, energy, connection. I want those who approach my work not to observe it, but to immerse themselves in it.
Arriba y abajo
A second series in conversation with Se plonger: what is above is below, what rises and what sinks.
Each painting, on your wall
See every work on a white wall, in a hallway and in a dining room, at true scale and with three frame finishes, to picture it at home.
35 works
The artist
Mar Melen is an artist from Barcelona with deep ties to Menorca, whose work grows out of her emotional bond with the sea. A telecommunications engineer by training, she combines technical rigour with abstract painting charged with energy. In her series Se Plonger ("to dive in"), she invites viewers to enter the work the way one leaps into water: a jump, a descent and an encounter with the depths. The series was featured in an article in Artnobel magazine (issue 27, June 2026).
I am calm water, I am storm.
I have always been fascinated by the invisible: the subtle connections that link what seems far apart. As a telecommunications engineer I explored those links through science, but it is in art that I feel them in their purest, most intuitive form.
Creativity, science and spirituality share one impulse: the search for what lies beyond the tangible. Art connects you with your emotions and your desires, with yourself.
My work is art for meditating: a dialogue between emotion and energy, a journey where colour and texture become bridges to what lies deepest. With acrylics and mixed media I capture moments of transformation: abstract landscapes that whisper to the soul.
You can look at my paintings as an anchor: an image that ties a vision to an emotional state. If you are happy and calm when diving, swimming or sunbathing in summer, reliving that vision brings the same state back.
My paintings grow out of that emotional bond with water and what it represents for people: movement, calm, connection with something greater than ourselves.
In the Se plonger series the subject is moving water and our relationship with it. In French, se plonger means to dive in. It is not just entering the water; it is letting yourself fall, surrendering, immersing yourself without resistance. It is a reflexive verb, a decision: nobody plunges you, you plunge yourself. This series does not ask you to look at the paintings, but to dive into them. In this series, each painting is a moment suspended between air, water and sand. Between what we show and who we really are
Exhibitions
- Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 August 2026Solo exhibitionGran Migjornale 2026 · Es Migjorn Gran, Menorca · C/ Sant Jaume 3, casa 21
- 18 Jan 2026Solo exhibitionSala Cucudrulu, Tiana
- Autumn 2025 – winter 2026Work on displayCasino de Tiana
- Oct – Dec 2025Group exhibitionArtardor, Premià de Mar Town Hall
- Oct 2025FairArtardor Fair, Premià de Mar
- 29 Jan – 26 Feb 2025Solo exhibitionPremiart
- 15 Jan – 15 Feb 2025Solo exhibitionLibrary, Sant Adrià del Besòs Town Hall
- 8 – 24 Jan 2025Solo exhibitionBMC art gallery
- Work on displayEl Abirradero brewery, Paral·lel, Barcelona · “Se plonger à la bière”
Published in ARTNOBEL
“The Surface and the Deep”
At what point do we leave the surface to move toward depth? To dive in is to accept a momentary loss of control, to embrace uncertainty, and to trust the process.
Changer de regard, c’est déjà plonger.
A work for your space
I paint to commission for homes, hotels and interior design projects. We start from your space and the emotion you want it to hold.
- 01
Conversation
You tell me about the space, the light and what you want to feel when you look at the painting.
- 02
Proposal
I suggest a state (sea, tension or calm), a format and a palette, and we look at it on photos of your space.
- 03
Painting
I paint the work in acrylic and mixed media.
- 04
Delivery
You receive the painting ready to hang, framed if you chose a frame.
Tell me about your space
If you are an interior designer or work for a hotel, say so in your message: I prepare formats and terms for projects.
Let’s talk
For availability, sizes, price and shipping. Write to me with the title of the work and I will reply.
Menorca, Spain