Naturalism with a North Star

Cover Artist Chase Mullen

by Maggie Bozkoba

FOR HIS ENTIRE LIFE, artist Chase Mullen has been driven by two passions: art and nature. Romanticizing explorers like Lewis and Clark and naturalists like Audubon, Mullen found himself most at ease in the natural world. “I spent a lot of my childhood outside,” he explains, “I didn’t have many hobbies so when I wasn’t drawing, I would pass time exploring the southern creeks and ponds where I grew up.”

His innate abilities with a brush kept him always coming back to art. “I was never a very good student, but when it came to art things really clicked for me.” However, he did not originally consider becoming a professional artist. “I spent a few years juggling majors in college and not feeling very good about any of it,” he explained of his school years. Back then, working as a full-time artist just didn’t seem like a viable career path. It wasn’t until an opportunity presented itself to move abroad with his wife that he decided to make a shift. This was the first time in his life where he was actively painting 12 hours a day, approaching it as a profession rather than a hobby. Eight years have passed since making the move, and he hasn’t looked back.

Though their travels took them far and wide, Mullen’s art has always been centered on the South. “I left Louisiana in 2014. We moved all around the world and I never felt more like a fish out of water. I was born in Louisiana and spent my entire life here; I just didn’t know how deep those roots were until I tried to leave. We moved back in 2021.” And it is always the iconic scenes and species of Louisiana that inspire his pieces the most. “I’ve never felt comfortable with any other subject. I’ve tried and it just makes me feel like a cover band,” he jokes.

Take one look at his work and you are immediately clued into the history that Mullen is influenced by. His hyperrealistic depictions of southern nature scenes are reminiscent of early scientific illustrators like Audubon, but with a colorful twist that modernizes the composition. Speaking on his choice of subject matter Mullen explains, “It’s been an evolving process. I always looked for juxtapositions or a way to build an artistic identity that I felt was my own. I had the South and naturalism as my two tentpoles.”

Mullen’s style is also influenced by his choice of tools and materials. Rather than using traditional canvas, he likes to paint on panels of birch wood which he sands and paints to achieve his preferred finish. “I’ve never loved the feel of canvas,” he explains of the choice. “The birch panels give me more control.” They have the bonus of feeling more like a diorama. “They could be just at home in a natural history museum or an art gallery,” Mullen explains.

And though he is inspired by classical techniques, he is not afraid to use modern technology to realize his vision. When starting on a new piece, he will utilize his iPad to move each element in the piece millimeters at a time until the spacing is just where he wants it. “I might move one element 100 times, but 99 of those placements will be wrong,” he jokes of his process. One of his favorite tools is his Masterson Sta-Wet palette, which, through a water well in the base of the box, allows him to continue to work with a set of colors for up to a month rather than the three-hour window you would normally have for acrylic paints on a traditional palette. “Technology gives you so much more flexibility,” he explains, emphasizing that for him it is about balance between working smarter while honoring the history and craftsmanship that comes with artistic pursuits.

Though Mullen has made many big changes in his life and career to date, nothing could have prepared him for the shift that came just last year, when he and his wife welcomed a baby girl into their lives. “I became a dad this year and that has had the biggest impact on my work to date,” he says of this moment. Rather than thinking about his work in an abstract, more “marketable” way, Mullen has found himself shifting his perspective, wanting instead to communicate something deeper through his work. In doing so, he believes he has since created some of the most relatable pieces in his body of work. “The interesting thing is that these latest pieces have received some of the most enthusiastic responses from people,” he says, “I get excited about a piece now. When I see her do something or experience something, I read everything now as a metaphor.” He believes that this might be related to the fact that for the first time he is trying to encapsulate more shared experiences into his works. “It’s not that I am anthropomorphizing the subjects in my pieces, but I am trying to capture more universal relationships found in nature. Which I think everyone can relate to.”

A perfect example is this month’s cover, titled “Nursery”. Depicted is a female wood duck on a cypress knee with a hole that holds a duckling, a pink flower draped across, as a male duck swims along the perimeter. Below the water’s surface are two Bluegills circling the base of the cypress.

“I painted this after my daughter was born,” Mullen explains, “Her nursery is on the second floor of our home, just down the hall from our bedroom. A pink, flower-shaped mobile hangs over her crib. My wife was home with her for the first few months and my in-laws came to stay with us for a few weeks, downstairs in the spare bedroom.” This scene captures a moment in time. A life-changing, yet everyday moment.

“I have spent all this time trying to create a visual language through my work, but after my daughter was born, I felt like I needed to tell stories with that language. I never really cared about how my work was interpreted by others until I thought about how she would interpret them, and I wanted there to be something there for her.”

In the past, his work has always had an “explanation,” a point of view or a statement to make, Mullen says, but that in his estimation it often lacked an innate sense of storytelling. He jokes that now when he goes to compose a work, his biggest fear is that his daughter would come to him and ask, “Why would you do this?” and his answer would be, “I don’t know.” “What a lame answer that would be!” he laughs.

While nature and the South remain his two tentpoles, Mullen admits that now he has his North Star, a lens through which he now views everything, his daughter.

You can find Chase Mullen’s work on his website, chasemullenstudios.com and email him at chase@chasemullenstudios.com.