Joan Miller-Artist Page
Joan Miller
Resume
Flying Colors #12
2010, Acrylic on canvas, 40" x 30"
“The painterly beauty, elegance, and sumptuous hues of Miller’s paintings ascribe to a form of lyrical abstraction, a style favored by artists who rejected the cold geometry of Minimalism in favor of a return to the lessons of Wassily Kandinsky and freer, more intuitive expression. Indeed, the pulsating colors and harmonizing forms lend the work a distinct musicality that no doubt connects to Miller’s early interest in folk singing and guitar while attending the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, from which she graduated in 1952...At the heart of Miller’s paintings, particularly the series ‘Flying Colors,’ are variations drawn from a personal vocabulary of vibrant colors and sinuous shapes.
More and more the traces of Miller’s process become distinct elements of her compositions. Charcoal lines are painted over, redirected, inserted. While offering a diagrammatic contrast to broad planes of vivid color...the line gradually takes on more weight, pushing and pulling at our attention...We soar with it, through and around melding amorphous forms...The line leads us through Miller’s singular dialogue with the canvas, underlining, so to speak, the sensuality and emotion within.”
– Deidre Greben