In London Alicia studied at St Martin’s School of Art, 1960–3, and Sir John Cass School of Art, in Paris at L’Académie de la Grande Chaumière. Her teachers included Harold Workman, Vivian Pitchforth, David Graham and John Pelling. Melamed’s pictures were richly coloured and romantic, flowers and figures featuring strongly. Her ideas were “usually triggered by a photograph, and when I don’t have any I paint flowers and fruit with a cup with a heart on it. This has become almost a signature.”