A Coffee Table Catalog of My Recent Work

Edward "Bear" Miller
Landscapes, Figures, and Portraits by Oil Paintings 2009 - 2011 | Make Your Own Book

Foundry Gallery in April and May

I have three Key Bridge paintings hanging at the Foundry Gallery, near Dupont Circle. They will be up until the end of the month, when I aim to put up two or three new pieces based on the Ecuadorian coast for May. The Foundry Gallery is at 1314 18th Street, NW DC 20036. It's open Wednesdays through Sundays in the afternoon. (202) 463-0203. www.foundrygallery.org.

I won't be at the Foundry for First Friday on May 6, as I'll be working on a "Petrolandscapes" series of plein-air pieces in southern Louisiana. I never cease to be amazed by how petroleum has become such an integral part of our lives and landscapes. This is obvious almost everywhere at this point, from our transcontinental grids of pavement to the shockingly awesome metal birds roaming the skies. I have been especially struck on the extraction side of the equation by the juxtapositions I've witnessed among the machinery at work in the marshes and bayous of southern Louisiana and by the extraordinary scale and pace of activity occuring in the Ecuadorian Amazon. I have lots of family in southern Louisiana and my wife is from Ecuador, where I lived for five years. Depending on how this initial series of plein-air studies in Louisiana goes, you may be seeing a whole bunch more petrolandscapes from me in the months to come. My aim is that they will be beautiful, grounding, and thought-provoking. Maybe my work will spark some creative re-assessment of our petroleum-based reality.

Recent Portraits

Piotrek (18 X 24"). Sold.


detail

I have grown keen on doing larger portraits of intimate friends and family. I enjoy doing them and they generate good feedback and attract commissions. Specifically, I was musing with my wife late one night about how what I REALLY want to do when I REALLY hit my stride is big (72" X 48") nude life-size portraits in landscapes or in interior spaces with landscapes in the window(s). That next morning, the NY Times reviewed the show of German romantic painters of figures in rooms with views at the Metropolitan Museum. The timing was good, because I was headed up there anyway for the Great Upheaval show at the Guggenheim and the Abstract Expressionists show at the MoMA. Maribel and I saw all those shows and collections and had a good morning ramble through Chelsea galleries with host-brother Will, the subject of the effort above. It's a promising start to a work in progress.


Father and Son/Self. Both 16" X 20". oil on canvas.

These two hang well together. We just embarked with my wife on an attempt to bike all 185 miles of the C&O Canal, something we've talked about doing since I started riding a bike at age six. We were doing very well, but the forecast for Saturday was for possible tornadoes and three inches of rain, so we quit at mile 140 on Friday, hitched a ride to Cumberland, and celebrated my fortieth birthday over dinner at Todd and Ellen Gray's Equinox on Connecticut Avenue. The following painting was a done in anticipation of the odyssey to come.


Key Bridge in March, from Virginia (24 X 48", oil). Sold.


C&O Canal from Key Bridge (18 X 24", oil). Sold.


Rock Creek Reflections (18 X 24"), oil on canvas. Sold.

This last piece is a gem that I just pulled out into the light of day and have been enjoying and wanted to share here. It is from under the Mass Ave Bridge along Rock Creek during the fall of 2009.