LEWISTON – Artist Melinda Campbell revels in her work.

In the pastel shades of blue, green, pink and yellow paint that she’s applying to two oil tanks at Bates Mill.

In the history of the century-old mill complex and the nearby waterways that inspired her design.

Oh, and in the financial fun the project represents.

“I’m in pig heaven,” said the smiling Campbell, her face, sunglasses and clothes speckled with paint. “It’s the first time I’ve not had a project I’ve had to sell candy bars for.”

Campbell spends the school year teaching art at Fairview School in Auburn, where she was part of the 1990 team that painted the mural welcoming people along Main Street.

She’s tickled to have been chosen as the artist to transform the two stalwart 20,000-gallon tanks into works of art, part of a mill complex upgrade that Bates Mill LLC started this spring. According to Barbara Trafton, broker for the mill complex, the company has spent upward of $45,000 on landscaping and other beautification projects to enhance the mill’s appearance.

“We see this as a multi-use campus,” said Trafton, who works with Keller Williams Realty Mid Maine marketing the mill. “We want employees and visitors to have a total environment that is pleasing and complements those gorgeous buildings.”

Trafton suggested Campbell to architect Tom Platz, who is overseeing the project, because of her work on the New Auburn mural. Campbell and Platz clicked when they met to review her sketches.

“We spoke the same language,” said Campbell, noting the similarities in their design and art training.

Together they settled on a French Impressionist design for the tanks that incorporates watery themes. Campbell said she loves the water and drew inspiration from the Great Falls, the canals and even Fountain Park. The design features 360 degrees of colorful cascading ribbons that spin into playful curlicues.

“I’m all about French Impressionism,” said Campbell. “The design is more like van Gogh with a Monet palette.”

Campbell hopes to finish the project by Wednesday. She’s enjoyed the challenges of the project so far, including learning how to maneuver the mechanical lift that hoists her 30 feet into the air so she can reach the tanks.

She’s also acutely aware of how the tanks will be viewed – from every angle. She plans to take more time with the tank on the left because that one faces Lincoln Street and abuts what will be a patio area just outside Mill No. 3.

She’s even planning to paint the tops of the tanks, aware that people working in the upper floors of the mill look down on them.

“My daughter’s grandmother works on the third floor. She’ll be looking at this every day,” she said.

Although this is the first industrial structure she’s painted, it’s not the first time Campbell has been impressed with fuel tank painting.

A native of Swansea, Mass., she remembers passing the gas tanks on Boston Harbor painted by artist Sister Mary Corita with abstract strokes that inspired comparisons to Fred Flintstone, the Roadrunner and Ho Chi Minh.

“I want people driving by these to look at them and wonder, ‘What is it?'” she said. “It can be anything, as long as you are enjoying it.”

She is hiding her signature trademark, though. The initials of her children, A and J, are embedded in the design, and she just might feel inspired to add Patriots and Red Sox logos as well.

“That’s the kind of thing you do just for fun at the end,” she said.