Poplar, Oak, and Sturgeon Dreaming

Tulip Poplar, Montrose Park (20" X 16", oil on canvas)


Sun and Oak (60" X 40", oil on linen)


Sturgeon Dreams Under Key Bridge (36" X 48", oil on canvas)

Long Railroad Bridge

Long Railroad Bridge (30" X 40", oil on linen)

I have painted this bridge a number of times from the Hains Point side. This I painted from a photo I took from the Virginia side, by the Yellow Line bridge, looking toward Hains Point. I think it is successful, but I'd like to do what Van Gogh did with his repetitions. I'd like to make a copy of this. I think it will flow and accentuate the pleasing properties in a way that I failed to achieve in the painstaking process of working from a photo. But for now, I am eager to make a success of this 36" X 48" painting that is underway. It will be called something like Sturgeon Dreams Under Key Bridge. It will accompany Shad Dreams Under the Q Street Bridge at my January solo show at the Foundry. Mark your calendars for the Friday, January 3rd "First Friday" opening, please!

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.