Update: You Can Lead Your Horse

Still managed to get good work done here today, despite the disgusting gray outside. Well, we have a horse now. Some more details to be done on the back wall and the body, but it's getting there. Everything will have to dry before I can put the bridle in. Title change as well.

Gallery 57

So we took a trip to Gallery 57 in Charleston yesterday and it's a great place.  It's actually a house that's been sort of converted into a gallery.  But they have a lot of energy and it's very comfortable there.  Keep an eye out for updates as we'll be planning a number of events there over the coming months.

http://57gallery.blogspot.com/

Update: Leading Your Horse (dark picture)

Filled in the ground and did some background crack work today. Will have to let everything dry before moving on to the horse's body later this week. Soon enough we'll have a pretty (but sad) chestnut mare here.

On the easel today: Leading Your Horse

Here's an early pic of a new painting I just started today. It's pretty large at 4 x 6 feet. This is part of the domesticated animal series. It was all just background work today. I'll hit the ground next and then the horse body.

Prep Time

I was on the road all day yesterday, but I'm back, and I have wood, and I'm making some large paintings (and some small ones). So today was prep day.

The Tic Tac Toe Building

This is one of my favorite places for inspiration. It's beyond me to figure out what the function of this building was. It seems to be simultaneously a hospital, office, prison, and boarding school. No matter, it's completely defunct now.

Update: Summoning the Beast

Here's another update (and better picture of this painting). I've been putting the shadows in and tightening up on the face. I've included 'The Magic Circle' by Waterhouse because that's where I derived the inspiration for the model's outfit, and loosely the inspiration for the painting itself.

Quick Sketch: The Lioness

Here's a sketch for a new fairly large (5' x 5') painting that I'm going to start probably next week. It's tentatively going to be called 'The Lioness.' So far, I love that this is the kind of pose you would not strike in this type of dress. The numbers in the upper right are measurements of the model. 8 inches from chin to top of head and 15 across her shoulders. This helps me determine how large the wooden support will be when I go to cut it. Check back for progress.

On the easel today: Summoning The Beast

Getting there. All the preliminary work is now done. There's some glazing and details (particularly in the face, hands and flowers) to be fussed over, but the basics are laid out. Cloudy day, so...blurry picture. Will have a better picture when the painting is finished.

OK, It's True

I lied, I've been inside the Power House. We did a little photoshoot in there a few months back.

R.I.P The Powerhouse

The Powerhouse, located on the Old Naval Yard in Charleston, SC, right near my studio, is being transformed. This is one of the most amazing buildings around here, a massive structure that use to produce megawatts of electricity for the Naval Yard until it was decommissioned. The whole thing looks like a mad scientist's lair with pipes overtaking the beaux art exterior. These are old pictures, all the pipes are torn off right now, and there's a fence around the outside. Wish I could have seen the interior.

In Preparation

In preparation for our Next Big Event on September 18/19th, the ART LOCK-IN, the Fr3sh Cr3w is putting on a mini Lock-in for practice. It will be at 6 Pitt Street, in Charleston, South Carolina on August 1st. 9 artists, locked away for twelve hours to make as much work as possible. This should be a good trial run for the big 24 HOUR Lock-In in September, as a few of the artists will be in both events (like me). You can find out more at www.Fr3shArt.com.

Summoning The Beast

Mid-stage of a new painting. This is what's on the easel today. The model's outfit takes inspiration from the old Waterhouse painting 'The Magic Circle." In that painting a gypsy sorceress is making an incantation. I wanted to twist the idea of belief in the supernatural by coupling a very intent looking sorceress with a comical 'beast' image behind her.

New MaxMillerArt.com Being Created

Though it will not be a radical departure from the current design, the new MaxMillerArt.com, which will launch in maybe a month or so, will be a much needed update. Specifically in format. Hold your breath, it's almost here.

Torrent Portent

Here's an earlier pic of how this painting looked this morning, and the progress that I made on it today. I think that there's a thread I've been following lately about fear and superstition. There's still some more work to be done on the cat and the wall behind her.

This Bird Is Almost Cooked

The turkey vulture has entered my consciousness lately and I'm not sure why. Probably because it's the time of year to see them floating around in the sky, looking for carrion and looking like hawks. This painting is nearly, nearly finished and it's part of the 'Domestication' series that I've been working on. There's some more body work to be done and a little more work on the back wall as well that needs to be done. Poor old vulch is stuck inside.

Photography

I've had an on again off again relationship with photography for years, starting way back when I took my first photo class at the Gibbes in 1995. So I've been playing around recently with some photo work. It's refreshing to do something a bit different from painting. These two examples are sort of 'test pieces.' I think that whereas the new paintings are focusing on the ideas of layering that I'm very entranced by, the photos seem to be centering around the idea of scale and what can be done with that. Anyway, we'll see where it goes.

Impermanence

This is the titular work for the show in Lynchburg at the Academy of Art. It marks a new, mature direction for my paintings so I think it is only fitting for it to be the first painting posted here. The painting is 24 " x 24" oil on birch panel. Thematically it is about the transient nature of ideas and humanity in general. Or how the idea of ourselves is wispy/ethereal compared to the hard reality of bone and death.

Lynchburg, Virginia: Impermanence Show

The Academy of Art in Lynchburg was kind enough to have me by for a show during the month of June. There were 42 pieces, ranging from some of the small 3" x 3" works to a new, large 4' x 7' painting. The opening was a big success and and very complimentary. Here are a few shots at the start, before it got too crowded.

Let's Talk About Some Things

So. It's been awhile. Lot's has happened. And not much has been put up on this blog. I'm wondering if anyone even still looks at it. I've never been much of the 'journally' type of person, so daily updates, even weekly, have a tendency to elude me. BUT...the little group of sites I manage, this, MaxMillerPaintings.blogspot.com, MaxMillerArt.com and ArtStudentGallery.com are all going to be going through a few changes over the next few months. So, this site MaxMillerArt.blogspot.com will probably be the only reliable place to see consistent updates. Thus we are reinvented and reinvigorated.