There’s a quiet magic that happens when nature inspires art. It’s more than simply painting a flower or a grove of trees, it’s translating the living rhythm of the natural world into color, form, and feeling. For artist Megan Aline, who happens to also be my amazing wife and partner in all things including our gallery, this connection runs deep. Her paintings are rooted in the outdoors, carrying with them the light, movement, and serenity of the landscapes she knows so well. Growing up in Maine informs her work but really, growing up in nature informs her being.
Megan often begins her process not in front of a canvas, but outside. She walks, sometimes in the woods (often with our dog), sometimes along the water, allowing her mind to slow to the pace of rustling leaves and shifting clouds. She takes in the details: the curve of a branch, the dance of wild grasses, the way shadows pool in unexpected places. Back in our studio, these impressions become the building blocks of her compositions. The spots in nature that will live inside a silhouette.
If step one is finding a forest, step two is finding a person that the forest will live inside. I recently watched he go up to a barista and ask if she would be a model for one of her paintings. When she returned she said, "She has a beautiful profile don't you think?"
After finding the who and the where, the next step is to plan out the painting. Using museum grade vinyl, Megan masks off the shape the model on a canvas and gets to work. Her brushwork is deliberate yet organic, echoing the imperfections that make nature so beautiful. Layer by layer, she builds an atmosphere rather than just an image. Soft edges blur like mist over a meadow, while bolder marks give the work a sense of rootedness. The colors she chooses often lean into the earthy and the ephemeral, mirroring both the groundedness and the fleeting moments found outdoors.
After completing the painting inside the person, she then removes the vinyl in a satisfying reveal. The finished painting has now graduated from landscape to narrative. The figures form and shape carving out a new storyline that makes the forest feel like a portal to another world.
What makes Megan’s work so resonant is that it captures not just how a place looks, but how it feels to be there. Her paintings invite you to step into that same quiet she experiences on her walks, to pause and breathe in the stillness. It’s a reminder that art and nature share a language: one of patience, observation, and connection.
In a world that often moves too quickly, Megan’s paintings offer an antidote: a return to the simple, enduring beauty of the natural world, filtered through an artist’s heart, and I can attest that she is all heart.
