Michael Paul Miller

"Steeple"
2013 - Oil on Canvas - 24 x 20

"Wake"
2013 - Oil on Canvas - 47 x 72

"Wave"
2012 - Oil on Canvas - 30 x 24

"With Teeth (elder no. 1)"
2011 - Oil on Canvas - 8 x 8

"With Teeth" (gridded 16)
Oil on Canvas - 8 x 8 each

Michael Paul Miller is an artist of the times, obsessed with the dark side of human nature and existence, depicting in detailed fascination images of destruction and chaos, both literal and allegorical. Our culture has embraced post-apocalyptic imagery like never before, not because we believe some sudden cataclysmic event is imminent but because we suspect that we are living within such an event even now, and it is us. The imagery provided by this obsession is about how we exist in such a world, what it means to survive when the very nature of survival is changing. And, of course, there is the constant reminder that we may not. The "Momento Mori" tradition in western art (literally, "remember you will die") goes straight back to the classical era of ancient Greece and Rome but it takes on a new urgency when the implications of it are not just for us as individuals, but also for us as a species. In the face of certain mortality however, we still manage to find beauty, and in even in the grimmest depictions of disaster there is something in the human spirit that responds with a visceral thrill. This strange contradictory nature of our being is the heart of what Michael Paul Miller is attempting to get at. Looking back through the work on his website you can see that it has evolved, developing and distilling his ideas and dark obsessions into works of stark and disturbing beauty.
You can see more at his website: www.mpmart.net
His work can be seen in person in Portland, Oregon at Laura Russo Gallery
or in New York city at Denise Bibro Fine Art
He currently has work on display at the Fairbanks Gallery on the campus of Oregon State University

Alberto Ortega Rodas

"No Time Like the Past"

"Kick the Can"

"Long Distance Call"

"Shell"

"The Lateness of the Hour"

"Nocturno 2"

I'm a sucker for low light landscapes. I love those bright electric bulbs buzzing in lonely places, so unequal to the task of beating back the night. There's something about a night scene where the human presence is so near but not directly revealed, that seems to naturally load the mind with narrative potential. Stories are best told in the dark. Evening light is nice too I guess. Whatever the lighting, Alberta Ortega Rodas, an artist in Raleigh, North Carolina, has a knack for capturing it far more eloquently than most. I was immediately reminded of Linden Frederick whose work is often tighter but employs the same formal compositions and captures the same lonesome moods. I wish I knew the sizes of these paintings. Their rougher technique suggests to me they're fairly small, but either way, I rather like the loose gestural quality of them contrasting with the architectural formality. I've seen many artists who do quick studies for larger works and I've found that I often prefer the studies to the final product. The artist seems happy to oblige my tastes on this point.

His website is simply a blog at this point and has only been up for a year, so if you like this work as much as I do, we hopefully have plenty to look forward to. I wish I could have posted this earlier. His show at Designbox ends tomorrow. Alas, I simply did not know. Hopefully I'll be able to post a whole bunch of new work the next time he exhibits somewhere, which, given his skill, ought not to be too long from now.
 www.aortegarodas.blogspot.com

Charles Ritchie

"Self-Portrait with Night XI"  watercolor, graphite and conté crayon on Fabriano paper  5.5" x 12"  2011-2012

"Snow in Two Panels"  watercolor, graphite and conté crayon on Fabriano paper  4" x 12"  208-2011

"Composition with Summer Foliage"  watercolor and graphite on Fabriano paper  3 1/8" x 3 3/4"

"Three Windows"  watercolor, graphite, conté crayon, and white ink on Fabriano paper  6 7 /8 x 8 3/8"  2010-2011

"Kitchen Windows with Reflections"  watercolor and graphite on Fabriano paper  4" x 6"  2011

Charles Ritchie's work was included in the latest issue of New American Paintings (#100 covering the Southeast U.S.) and it immediately caught my eye. I'm always drawn to night time imagery; the atmosphere of it, the way details recede into shadow and the darkness joins large areas into obscure patterns. But I also loved the way he plays with reflected images. The night he observes is often seen through a pane of glass, superimposing multiple views, further obscuring the subject matter, adding to the mystery. Then finally I noticed the technique. And especially the scale. Now I do love large paintings. Scale is incredibly important, and the impact of a particular piece can be tremendously more effective on a monumental scale. Alternately, what might have been a nice modest painting can seem a bloated and over indulgent. But small has its own strengths and charms and pitfalls. Small is intimate. A crowd can gather about a huge painting in a gallery and feel as if they are sharing in the experience. But very small pieces insist on individual interaction. Only one at a time please. You must make a very personal connection to the work. These quiet meditative images are perfectly suited for this kind of interaction. And I can well imagine that the soft, loving, labor intensive technique would well reward the smallest investment of attention. You can see much more work on the artist's website: www.charlesritchie.com

Sarah Williams

"Clarence"  2011  oil  24"x24"

"Paint Booth"  2011  oil  30"x30"

"Pavement 5"   2011  oil  12"x12"

"Brookfield Satellites"  2011  oil  12"x12"

"Sprague's Locker"  2010  oil  18"x30"

Anyone who has seen my own work will understand the appeal for me in Sarah Williams's night scenes. Artificial lights all have their own signature spectrums, some close to white, others eerily extreme, saturating all within their reach in a sickly range of reds and ochers or cold and unforgiving greens and blues. Sometimes several different light sources vie against each other. But the darkness, is the defining element of night. And the stillness that emanates from it. These are quiet scenes, not of nature, but of completely man made structures and environments. The people are absent. For night is also the time when we sleep, and even the places that we build appear to dream.
You can see more at her website: sarahwilliams-paintings.com
Her work was also included in the recent issue of New American Paintings (#96)

Daniel Danger

The best illustrators pursue a personal vision no less than fine artists, and can be counted as such. Daniel Danger (If it is his real name, I think every 12 year old boy should be very jealous) builds layers of line work in mostly monochromatic silkscreens to create a night world of astonishing depth and texture. Fortunately he has posted fairly decent sized digital files, so it is just possible to get a sense of the subtlety that the originals might possess.
His is a world of enormous spaces in which small fragile characters are almost completely engulfed by the darkness that surrounds them. It is a world of somber but significant drama. It is a haunted world full of ghosts and memories and the almost overwhelming sense that it is later than you think.
You can see more of his art prints, gig posters and album covers at his website: tinymediaempire.com
Definitely click on the images below to view them larger!

















“and i dont even like to be seen in the parking lot between the movies and the drink and the glass, whatever the hell that means”
18×24″ five color silkscreen 2009






















“I'd sink to your city streets if i wasnt buried in your hands”
16×24″ five color silkscreen 2009













“has thou slain the jabberwock?”
12×24″ five color screenprint 2009






















“lock and key or latchkey, a house you tricked empty”
20×30″ five color silkscreen 2009























“I came to know an archer”
24×24 three color screenprint with hand painted elements

Carl Randall

I was first struck by this night scene for reasons anyone who has looked at my own work will understand. (I particularly like the use of red to capture that peculiarly urban light). While there are more paintings that are quite good, I was overwhelmed when I looked at his relatively more recent portrait drawings in Japan, including survivors of the bomb in Hiroshima.
There are more paintings and plenty of drawings to look through at his website (but nothing to indicate what he's done in the past couple of years): carlrandall.com


















"House at Night" 65x45" 1999






















"Portrait of Hibakusha - Mr. Kakuta" (survivor of the atomic bomb, Hiroshima) 35x45cm 2005






















"Portrait of Hibakusha - Ms. Hideko Takahata" (survivor of the atomic bomb, Hiroshima) 35x45cm 2005























"Portrait of Donald Richie" 60x45cm 2005

Linden Frederick

Again I am always drawn to night scenes. And he shares a name with my daughter, so there's that too. Now if only I had this much skill with a brush.
I really wish these files were a little bigger but even at this size I'm impressed. I can only imagine the impact of seeing the actual paintings.
www.lindenfrederick.com



















"Yield" 2006, 26" x 26"



















"Brakeman" 2006, 35" x 35"



















"No Exit" 2005, 45" x 45"

Rob Evans

These are gorgeous traditional paintings, most with heavy doses of allegory, but it's the light that attracts me the most
www.robevansart.net






















"Study for Movement" by Rob Evans 2004






















"Aftermath 2" 2007