James Mullen: Time and Tide

Growing up in a rural environment, I have always felt a connection to the natural landscape, and its ability to represent ideas. I have never seen the landscape as a static thing, but rather as a process that is constantly changing. Because of this, my work revolves around an interest in light, and how even a single location moves through time via the constantly changing sense of the light that reveals it. The state of Maine has been the cornerstone of this project since I first began visiting it as a painting destination in the mid-1980s. Since moving here in 1999 to teach, I have explored much of the state, with a special affection for the complex coastal regions from Kittery through the Schoodic peninsula. In all seasons, in all weather, it is a landscape that is constantly revealing itself in new ways, and is a source of near limitless reflection and possibilities.