About Robert Pollien
Robert Pollien is a painter of the coastal Maine landscape, working from direct observation and a long, attentive relationship with place. His paintings are built slowly, through subtle shifts of value and tone, distilling tide pools, granite outcroppings, and forest edges into compositions that balance structure with atmosphere. Pollien often works in the soft, diffused light of early morning, overcast days, or twilight—conditions that allow forms to simplify and the landscape to settle into refined tonal relationships.
His approach is grounded in drawing, clarity, and close looking. The paintings are not literal transcriptions but meditations on presence, weather, and the quiet drama of the natural world.
Pollien studied painting at the University of Pennsylvania and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture before settling in Maine. He has exhibited widely throughout the Northeast for more than four decades, with exhibitions at Dowling Walsh Gallery, Page Gallery, and Artemis Gallery. His work is represented in the collections of the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and the U.S. Department of the Interior, among others.
He is a two‑time Artist‑in‑Residence at Acadia National Park and a recipient of grants from the Maine Arts Commission and the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation.
Pollien lives and works in Maine, continuing to explore the shifting weather, light, and structure of the landscape that has shaped his practice.