Updates from Chris Mueller
June 26, 2025
Highlight of a summer that is already screaming by — hiking in the Rockies with the family. I'm routinely amazed at the elevation in those mountains. A standard hike in the Rockies puts you well above the highest elevations of most of the Alps. Hope that your summers are taking you to beautiful places!
May 29, 2025
Cycling in Mallorca, years ago! Beautiful.
May 15, 2025
I'm reading Artemis Cooper's biography of Patrick Leigh Fermor with morning coffee these days. The sun is up high, up north. It hits the windows at a new angle this time of year. The weekends are filling with art shows — I love meeting so many of you in person, witnessing your work and your connections to the people around you. Be well, happy Spring!
April 10, 2025
What is more magical than the muds of spring?
March 27, 2025
It's spring — time for sidewalk chalk! The kids really get into it and love mixing water into the medium to get beautiful gradients and color washes.
February 27, 2025
This is one of my favorite paintings - Seawall by Richard Diebenkorn. This photo was taken at the De Young museum in San Francisco. He's been such an inspiration for my work for the last couple of decades. I love how this painting in particular really blurs the line between abstraction and landscape, and of course how it captures the colors of the California coast.
February 20, 2025
Hiking on the marsh — so beautiful.
January 30, 2025
Years ago we built this ice castle out on a frozen lake. You can see the blurry image of my son working his way through the tunnels. January always strikes me as a time to build. It's dark in the northern hemisphere, time to work and practice and make things that make our future better. I just finished reading Stanley Tucci's "What I Ate in One Year" using a lovely bookmark from Judy at Raucous Jewelry to mark the seasons. Keep building.
January 23, 2025
Spring poppies hanging over the hills of northern California. These grew everywhere, like weeds. We have a painting from Owen (https://owenbrown.lyric.store) in our home now of these California poppies, love having it there even if the season is dark.
January 16, 2025
We love when the lake becomes a park, even when temps drop below zero. Have been reading Stanley Tucci's "What I Ate in One Year" which is a delightful romp through recipes and restaurants and the intersections they have with his personal and professional lives. Lovely book.
December 18, 2024
I recently finished the book "Blue Highways" by William Least Heat-Moon. It's a fantastic bit of travel writing, written over 40 years ago, about the backroads of America, with beautiful snatches of writing like this: "In Pell’s store you still weighed vegetable seed on a brass counterbalance with little knobbed weights; the butcher’s block was so worn in the center you could pour a bucket of water over it and only a pint would run off." Here's to adventure, and to coming home. ✨
December 4, 2024
Surprised the kids this week with Ravel's Boléro. Surprised me too. Such a great piece of music. I haven't spent as much time in the studio lately, but I can point you to my list — a great group of makers and artists whose work we love: https://cm.lyric.store/recommendations Happy winter!
November 13, 2024
Winter light.
November 7, 2024
The weather recently has been English — damp, cold, foggy. Reminds me of years ago, when I spent time in the north of England. The countryside is lovely there. And no matter the weather, the mountains were always worth a hike, especially if a warm pub and a cold pint were at the end of the journey. Wordsworth lived there, centuries ago, and left us with many powerful poems, Tintern Abbey and The World Is Too Much With Us are two. Now, as you start shopping for the holidays, remember to buy local and support the makers and artists you love!
October 30, 2024
We'll be dressing up as the weather for Halloween this year. The kids are sun, snow, and a rainbow. Parents will be the rain and the wind. Feels appropriate, somehow! A few folks asked me last week if I had any originals for sale, so I've added a few here.
October 23, 2024
We listened to a new piece of music this week called "Aurora" by Lil Lacy, performed by a symphony in central Minnesota. The boys loved imagining the sunrise as the music swelled and boomed. The sun is lower this time of year, and we're taking in each day as it comes, loving the light, and filling the days with art.
October 16, 2024
A photo from last year's autumn, when the colors were surreal. I've been spending time with Paul Theroux, rereading the Great Railway Bazaar and picking up The Pillars of Hercules and Dark Star Safari. The bazaar is a great analogy for so many things. Travel is color.
October 9, 2024
Brought this large painting home from the studio a few weeks ago. This continues my long fascination with Brice Marden. Loving how the afternoon light plays with it!
October 1, 2024
The late heat this year has meant that our summer flowers are still out in bloom. A decadent post-equinox color field. This week the weather turns sharply towards autumn and we'll be living with a fresh kind of color.