A life lived
on the water

Peter Möhlman is a Pacific Northwest painter whose canvases are inseparable from the world that made them — the Salish Sea, Orcas Island's Deer Harbor, the interplay of light and tide along the San Juan archipelago.

His practice spans oil, watercolour, and mixed media, united by a singular obsession: the behaviour of light on moving water. Working directly from observation, he builds each canvas in thin, luminous layers, allowing the surface to accumulate meaning over weeks and months.

His work has been collected across North America and internationally by those drawn not just to beautiful paintings, but to paintings that remember specific places — and specific moments of looking.