About the Artist

I paint with my eyes, reiterating light’s language in paint, studying how light defines surfaces, casts shadows and reveals colors. My painting celebrates objectivity, yet a thing well painted describes me as I describe it; revealing the mind that selected, the hand that arranged, and the eye that saw it. This empathic process of careful observation lets all things visible, from a bowl of apples to the limitless sky, disclose their distinctiveness to me.

I paint pictures of the recognizable and familiar not to comfort but to evoke introspection and to unveil essential natures. Pictures of things we can touch touch us inside. Certain objects arouse remembrance and loneliness. Basic depiction is a powerful tool, transforming our “earthly belongings” into monuments that proclaim, “We were here!” The painted likenesses of our artifacts, environments and bodies transform our collective human memory into a deathless visual poetry. I add one small voice to that vast chorus.

Capturing the invisible soul of the seen is my goal, but lucky for me, I have only to paint how light bounces off the surfaces of material things to reveal this quintessence. In each painted patch of reflected light, let the apples of my eyes sing songs of sight!

Mehling began drawing when he was ten years old, copying illustrations from books, impressing teachers and parents with his "native" talent.

For decades he remained self-taught. In his twenties and thirties, he illustrated surrealist dreamscapes.

After his father died in 1976, he thought he couldn't afford returning to college to study art, so he worked many years in stores to earn a living.

Mehling didn't enjoy working in stores, so in 1994 he began planning in earnest to become a working professional artist. He bought a camera, copied his photos, and returned to college for professional art degrees.

By 2000, Mehling realized that painting from observation rather than photos or fantasy produced better results. From 2000 to 2003, he learned traditional painting (classical realism) from Robert Armetta at The Long Island Academy of Fine Art in Riverhead.

Mehling's search for a means of expression took him through three kinds of realism: surrealism, photorealism, and classical realism. In all, the realist method has remained constant.

Following the advice of his mentor at Long Island University, Prof. Neill Slaughter, Mehling began teaching and found it almost as rewarding as painting itself. In 2009 he got an MFA from LIU to teach college and share what he knows with younger painters.

Mehling's personal journey has been a story of struggles, setbacks and successes-but he would add: for an artist there is no greater earthly reward than simply being able to paint.