An essay from nearly seven years ago that has refreshed my drive to paint

On Painting

Painting is a visual, mental, and spiritual exercise. It is an athletic/technical discipline, a dance of the eye, the mind, the palette, and the hand. The canvas is the stage and the landscape/subject form the set/cast. The paint is the words and motions and thoughts of the painter/actor.

Painting is a voyage through reality to the core of being, a reflection of the artist’s internal life and his power to process the external. Painting is a creative voyage, an extended and focused ride on the interface between the painter’s internal organism and the universe of time-space, matter and light. All are in constant flux, presenting the paradoxical challenge of generating a fixed, static record of the voyage onto a given canvas, a canvas that itself changes very little over the course of a lifetime, though its appearance changes according to the light and according to the personalities of different viewers. Even the shifting moods and ongoing maturation of a particular viewer change the canvas’ appearance.

[The essay goes on and on but is pretty good. I've tagged it onto my artist's statement on my website: www.edwardbearmiller.com]

Thanks to Bob Stark for excavating and sharing this with me this morning!

September and October work

In process by Key Bridge


In process in Sharpsburg (24" X 32", oil on linen)


On Johns Brook (repainted... again) (16" X 20", oil on linen)


RR Bridge from VA in process (30" X 40", oil on linen)


Monday morning by the Keythedral (16" X 20", oil on canvas)


Knollwood (30" X 96", oil on linen)


Salutation Oak (16" X 12", oil on linen)

Adirondack August

A few gems resulted from my time up in Keene Valley this August. I failed to photograph most of them, but here are a few.

Southwestern Colorado Series

Went to Telluride this weekend. Colors down there are amped up. Greens, purples, oranges smother and fill the mountainsides. This is my first crack at deciphering and transmitting the effect.


Mountainside (16" X 12", oil on linen)


Approaching Rain (22" X 28", oil on canvas)

On the Chama River

River Wall (24" X 12", oil on canvas)


Rivershine (16" X 20", oil on linen)


Canyon Trees (16" X 12", oil on linen)

Over Fourth of July weekend, Sonia and I floated forty miles through the heart of Georgia O'Keefe country in NM, taking the inflatable kayaks out of the water just below Ghost Ranch. We were led and cared for by old buddy Josh Munson (best friend in Ecuador from '98-'99) and his lady Shanti and other remarkable friends of theirs. Encountered two more rattlers and a bull snake, but none within striking distance.

Denver-based Works

Mounting Fear (oil on canvas, 18" X 24")


Morning Escape (oil on canvas, 18" X 24")

I've been getting my Colorado on the past few weeks. It is a long-deferred dream finally activated through the logistical and spiritual support of Ms. Sonia Begonia. Denver is brimming with galleries and public enthusiasm for art. There are fifteen galleries just in our Santa Fe neighborhood and many more in other art districts around the city: http://www.denver.org/galleryguide. First Friday here is a very festive, folksy affair, far wilder and on a grander scale than First Friday in Washington, DC. And the Denver Art Museum (DAM) has a dynamite collection of strong contemporary painters, plenty of American chestnuts, and a thrilling show of Nick Cave's latest productions.


The View West (oil on canvas, 11" X 14")

The landscape is BIG and HIGH, like Vermont on steroids and hallucinogens. Scorching heat, wildfires, and the constant threat of rattlesnakes make plain-aire work more punishing than I had anticipated. I've had two very close encounters with rattlesnakes already, not to mention two other encounters that were less death-defying. Really shoulda gotten bit the second encounter when I didn't see him till after I'd stepped over him (literally) and Sonia cried out. I couldn't see the first one. He was in the shrubbery next to the trail (next to my left foot) at a switchback. He rattled his eerie rattle and I crept away, moaning and whimpering like a four-year-old. Coulda-shoulda got bit both times, really. Getting my nerve up to get paintings started in pre-dawn light, but breakfast at Wimbledon has become irresistible. And our balcony (from which The View West was painted) is shaded and snake-free. That's Mt. Bierstadt and Mt. Evans (tallest in the state) we see on the horizon.


Begonia Afloat (oil on canvas, 22" X 28")


Wild Ride (oil on linen, 16" X 20")


Dome and Pines (oil on linen, 20" X 16")


Painter's perch across the canyon from the Dome


Begonia just below the summit of Mt. Bierstadt


Painter on lead, North Table Mountain

Adirondack Sojourn

I arrived to Keene Valley for Memorial Day weekend and to celebrate my mother's birthday. Various paintings from last summer greeted me in various states of incompletion or unsatisfactory completion. Filled with fresh mountain spirits, I knew just what to do and in a flurry of inspiration during a stretch of rainy days I repainted one after another, mostly heightening contrasts of values and hues and outlining forms to lend heft and a more sculpted presence.


Pool of Yesterday's Tomorrows, 20 X 16"


Ann's Young Pine, 48 X 24"


Awaiting Irene, 12 X 24"


Batholith Ablaze, 24 X 36"


Brook Nymphs, 12 X 24"


Chapel Pond North, 16 X 20"


Northern Hourglass #1 (Chapel Pond), 24 X 36"


Northern Hourglass #2 (Chapel Pond), 40 X 60"

And these are some new incomplete projects started that week.


Harry's Watchers with Marcy, 22 X 28"


Sunblast on Chapel Pond, 16 X 12"

I am in Denver, Colorado for June and July, getting my Western spirit revived and gearing up to rock out a Begonia-based series here.