Merryl Cool
In the Studio
Merryl Cool paints the quiet architecture of everyday rooms and the shifting light along the Maine coastline. Working primarily in oil, with occasional pastel and pigment on paper, her work is concerned with stillness — the pause between one moment and the next.
She studied painting in New England and has been based in Portland, Maine since 2018, where she works from a converted carriage-house studio a few blocks from the water.
Artist Statement
I paint the rooms and shorelines that hold still long enough to be remembered — the pause before a thought, the light before it changes.
My process begins with looking, often for longer than seems reasonable: a room in late afternoon, a tide going out. I am less interested in likeness than in atmosphere, the particular quality of attention a place asks of you if you stay long enough.