Artist's Statement Specific to
The Merritt Parkway Series 

 
Cynthia Mullins greatly enjoys having the historic Merritt Parkway as her artistic muse. To date, she has created 44 paintings in this series.
 
The paintings in the Merritt Parkway Series are about design, color, light, mood and artistic experimentation. They are avenues of visually expressed sights and feelings experienced during time spent in the car on the Merritt. They are the moments gazing out a window, catching quick glances of a gorgeous sky or graceful trees and the thoughts that linger in the mind while moving from place to place on our literal and figurative road of life. Some of the paintings show cars moving towards and away from the viewer, perhaps evoking feelings of what is past and what lies ahead. Some of the smaller or more detailed paintings invite an intimate, close look while others have more impact as you stand back. Many of the paintings feature the unique bridges that are now protected as historic landmarks. Architect George Dunkelberger designed all 69 bridges primarily in the 1930s style of Art Deco and Art Moderne. Local artisans added additional interesting details to his architectural designs, such as the wings atop the James Farm Road Bridge.
 
Constructing the Merritt Parkway began in 1934, was wholly finished in 1940 and named after Congressman Schuyler Merritt who strongly favored it’s construction. It is 37.5 miles long, beginning in Greenwich and ending in Milford at the Sikorsky Bridge which spans over the Housatonic River and connects to the Wilbur Cross Parkway.  The Merritt is on the Register of Historic Places and is a National Scenic Byway.
 
In 2010, the Merritt was placed, along with a monastery in Bhutan and a church in Chili, on the World Monuments Watch List. “Comprising creations of individual imaginations, testaments to faith, and masterpieces of civil engineering…the sites on the 2010 Watch List are irreplaceable monuments to human culture.” (Reuters, Oct. 2009) 
 
Cynthia Mullins is an award-winning Connecticut artist who has been painting landscapes, florals and still life for over twenty years. Her painting roots run deep, as she is the great, great granddaughter and great, great grandniece of renowned Hudson Valley painters Aaron Draper Shattuck and Samuel Colman. She has exhibited her work in many solo, juried and group shows and her paintings have found homes in states all over the country. Ms. Mullins currently sits on the board of the Ridgefield Guild of Artists as Co-Creative Director and is a juried member of the Silvermine Guild, a juried member of the National Association of Women Artists in NYC as well as a member of the Collective Artists of Westport and various other art organizations.