August in Keene Valley

I've been here for a week. Produced some new work and dug up some older pieces that hadn't been posted before. I'm working on a couple of commissioned portraits and eyeing a big, blank 4' X 6' canvas of subject undecided.


Pool of Tomorrow's Yesterdays (Johns Brook), 18 X 24"


Pool of Yesterday's Tomorrows (Johns Brook), 16 X 20"


Priming for a big commission at the mountain studio.


June Wind, 18 X 24". Sold.


Summit Spirits on Skylight, 22 X 28". Sold.


Porter Between Showers, 18 X 24", Sold.

New Work from July

In Park's Waters (30 X 40"), oil on canvas


Bischoff's Bathers (30 X 40"), oil on canvas
Figures in watery landscapes is a subject I want to keep pushing. Two painters whose work was highly successful in placing men and women together in the murky emotional depths of water were David Park and Elmer Bischoff of the Bay Area figurative movement. Their confidence in applying thick color on canvas with clean emotional resonance set the standard. So one especially hot and lonesome week this month in DC I plumbed the depths of their approach by working in an openly derivative vein off of my favorite paintings by each of them.



Under the Whitehurst Freeway #1 (18 X 24"), oil on canvas


Under the Whitehurst Freeway #2 (12 X 24"), oil on canvas
On a hot July day, this is one spot where a person can find pretty steady shade. The cool, blue river and recently planted sycamores wave from the distance, but mostly it's a symphony of grey with big patches of liquid sky, warm bricks, hard steel, leaden pavement, and the occasional pedestrian. I've been looking at Rackstraw Downes' work a lot this year and I admire his approach greatly. He owns no camera and no computer and sets the standard for highly realistic plein-air painting in this late industrial era. These were done in that vein, but I can't hold a candle to his level of rigor and detail.


Will (18 X 24"), oil on paper. Blunt Collection.


Pat (20 X 20"), oil on canvas
Pat and Will are two friends from early childhood who are strong presences in my life today. These are two quick renderings. The one of Pat I think is especially successful and was done in a 90 minute sitting. The power of the colors, lines and gestures as they move around the square really excites me. The rendering reveals something of the mass and depth of the subject. I'd like to do more pieces this way with volunteers of all ages, colors, sizes, etc. No purchase necessary. Gimme a shout if you'd like to sit for me.



King of the Bayou #3 (22 X 28"), oil on canvas
In Louisiana in April I did a series of plein-air studies of this drilling rig. This is done from photos I took that day.


Sugarhouse #2 (16 X 24"), oil on paper
This is a study for a 24 X 36" canvas I aim to paint for a show in New Orleans in March.


Westward Ho (24 X 48"), oil on canvas
This is the railroad bridge and yellow line metro bridge stretching west from Haines Point. Anselm Kiefer's Zim-Zum piece at the National Gallery impressed me years ago with its rush of movement and poke at Teutonic notions of progress. I'm tempted to call this one Zim Zoom... It delivers that broken up atomizing impact that fading light on water and bridges has for me.


Dance of the Earth Movers (24 X 30"), oil on canvas. Sold.

New Work from June in Keene Valley

I'm back in DC after two fruitful weeks in Keene Valley. These are most of the pieces that resulted from my monastic time in the mountains. All are at the Corscaden Barn of Art, along with other pieces.

On the Brook, 16 X 20"


Jimmy & Ed's Inscrutable Face at Dawn, 15 X 30". Sold.


Earthly Separations #1, 15 X 30"


Earthly Separations #2, 24 X 48"

I also spruced up some pieces from the fall that needed help.

To the Source (Brookies leaping up Hulls Falls), 16 X 20. Sold.


Ghost Dance (on Baxter), 18 X 24"


Between Round & Giant, 16 X 20"

And there are five other new beauties that I'm not posting yet. I'll bring them down to the Corscaden Barn just as soon as I frame and photograph them.

Louisiana Petrolandscapes

The drilling rig and "Christmas trees" (i.e. oil well valve stations) in these paintings have been my companions for many hours during the past week. They embody for me the strong mix of emotions and associations most of us know well at this stage of the petroleum era.


King of the Bayou #1 (12 X 24"). Sold.




King of the Bayou #2 (12 X 24"). Sold.



Christmas Trees on the Bayou #1 (18 X 24"). Sold.


Christmas Trees on the Bayou #2 (18 X 48"). Sold.


Christmas Tree Looking Out (18 X 24"). Available through Octavia Gallery in New Orleans.


A pair of alligator friends who didn't take their eyes off of me during the three days I painted 35 feet from their nest. The larger one is the size of a German shepherd. His/her mate is a little smaller.

I plan to make more trips to Louisiana in the coming year and have signed on with the excellent Octavia Gallery on Magazine Street in New Orleans, where I will have a one-man show in March of 2012.

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.