About Dean McCrillis

Born and raised in western Maine, McCrillis pulls inspiration from the intensity of the state’s dense wilderness. His paintings reinterpret the tradition of sporting art, sourcing imagery from direct observation, memory, vintage family photos, and sporting ephemera. Skillfully rendered in wild palettes, his constructed scenes project an air of mystery and hover just beyond reality.

-Kate Rasche, Director George Marshall Store Gallery

The central focus of this work is human interaction with wild places. I often think of an ecological term called an Ecotone: a transition area between two biological communities, where these two communities meet and integrate. The Western Mountains of Maine, where I grew up, are full of spots like this. There, zones of domesticated space and wilderness often overlap. I think of painting as an intersecting space like this. These paintings are a bridge between natural history and personal history and, at their core, are compelled by both memory and discovery. It is a confluence of sorts, and I am persistently adapting and learning as I go. ~ Dean McCrillis