Deciding on a new series...

Key Bridge in February (24 X 30"). Sold.

Key Bridge is an attractive subject for many reasons. It has rhythm and grit and organic shapes and earthy colors: a geometric, industrial structure that is steadily melding into the landscape. It's a beautiful and relatively benign monument of the modern condition. I cross it several times a week and look out over the Potomac as it changes so much day to day, season to season.

I'm eager to paint Key Bridge from the Virginia side now, as it wraps into M Street suspended over the Whitehurst Freeway. I want to capture Key Bridge standing solidly in the flow of modern life, immersed up its thighs, miraculously spanning the river's two shores, shouldering the traffic of thousands of disparate lives every day.

I'm taking a course with Judy Southerland at the Corcoran called "Painting in a Series" and trying to decide what subject to explore for my first series. Key Bridge is a strong contender. Another option is a series of portraits (father? wife? self?... my mother won't sit for me... someone else? any volunteers out there?). Maybe West Virginia coal country in winter, painting from photos and memory. Must decide soon!

Adirondack Landscapes for Great Range Show

On Friday I'm hanging a show of Adirondack landscapes at the Great Range Restaurant/Wine Bar in Keene Valley, NY. My favorite restaurant in my favorite town on earth! Thank you, Elly and Jay! The show will be a mix of pieces from different years, including these four new pieces.


Batholith Ablaze (24 X 36")


Hide & Sweep (18 X 24"). Sold.


Looking Back (22 X 26"). Longstreth Collection.


Right Up In There (16 X 20"). Sold.


Portal to Bliss (16 X 20") Sold.

Ecuadorian Coast and Evolving Vision

At Christmastime we went to see my in-laws and many friends in Quito, and we got down to my favorite beach, Canoa in the province of Manabi. Stayed at the Bambu. These four paintings are from that trip and reflect my evolving vision, articulated in my most recent Artist's Statement for this current show at Baked & Wired here in Georgetown. I'll put it down at the bottom of this post.


Horizon Dweller (24 X 30")


Dance of the Earthmovers (24 X 30")


Waves and Fishing Boat (20 X 26")


Canoas (20 X 48"), sold.

Henri, Bellows, and the Bay Area figurative painters inform my work, but I’m consumed by a 21st-century admiration for our devastated natural world. Bridges, ships, and human forms in nature serve as motifs for contemplating humanity’s notions of liberation and progress in light of the biosphere’s diminishing robustness. The tragic beauty of oil rigs, mining operations, and commercial fisheries are subjects I plan to explore in 2011.

UPCOMING SHOWS in January & February

Mi Gente!

This coming Friday, January 21st at 6pm, I have an opening of my paintings at the hippest little cafe in Georgetown: Baked & Wired: 1052 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW 20007.*

Come at six for wine and cheeze or come a little later, when the Helen West Sax Quartet and the real madness begin to flow. I hope to see you there!

It's a three-week show, so even if you miss the opening (which is not to be missed!), be sure to drop by for my art, the baked and brewed delights of Tony and Theresa Velasquez (the super-hip owners), or a poetry reading or musical event in the not-too-distant future!

ALSO: I'll have four pieces in the Citizens Association of Georgetown show in Georgetown Park from Jan 27 to Jan 30....

AND: Up in Keene Valley, NY: The Great Range is turning over their walls to twenty-one of my Adirondack landscapes until I take them down in June.

http://bakedandwired.com
*Thomas Jefferson Street runs south of M, down from the corner of Barnes & Noble, between 30th & 31st.

Awright Nuff Sed!

Hasta pronto,

Edward "Bear" Miller
www.bearmiller.blogspot.com

Bathers

Man Awash (30 X 40")


Woman Turning (24 X 48")


Woman in Blue & Green (18 X 24"), sold.



Woman Bathing (18 X 24")


Move Through Blue (30 X 40")

Nudes in water is a combination rich in associations. These pieces are based on snapshots of my wife and me on our way down from a very isolated group of peaks in the Adirondack wilderness, but the man and woman should be read as universal figures. As pictures and forms, these really speak to me and I hope they translate well for people who don't know me (and for people who do!).

From my Figure Painting Class at the Corcoran

In order of appearance:

Sombra (16 X 20")


Gordo (18 X 24")


Flaco (18 X 24")


Joven (16 X 20")


Julia (18 X 24"), Collection of Gavin Dougan

Each of these has merits. The first two were done with a very limited palette, per professor Katherine Knights instructions: white, raw umber, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, blue. On Sombra and Flaco I sketched out the form with a red oil pastel before painting. Flaco was begun with a very limited -albeit expansive- palette of just light yellow, alizarin crimson (which I hadn't used since college), and pthalo blue, and white. That and black are what printers use. We were allowed to expand the palette to inject earthier tones in the final session of the pose, and I did. It's a little overworked, and I decided to stop fussing and start anew on a quick freshy in the last twenty minutes of the pose. The resulting last piece, Joven, is a very rushed, quick-response-no-time-to-fuss-or-doubt effort. It's my favorite of the group because of its energetic strokes and raw coloration. The interplay of colors and the strong lines make my heart sing as much as any piece I have ever painted.

Women on the Sofa

Tres Mujeres en el Sofa (18 X 24"), Collection of Sarai Rodriguez

These are three Andean women close to my heart. I took a snapshot on Halloween night of them at a party and based this painting on the photo. It has merits. I welcome feedback on it and all my pieces.