Missouri farm

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on July 26, 2019 at 9:33am

Curator’s Comments:

(Disclaimer: Miles in a well-known artist living in my hometown.)

Missouri Farm caught my attention today, and I delight in the colorful banding of the landscape.  I particularly like the manner in which the striated purple stripes rush up to meet the golden yellow crops.  As there is some expressive abstraction, or simplification present in the image, I first read the purple section as an alternating crop, but then vacillate between seeing it instead as empty/plowed space.  Either way, the chunky compartmentalization of the piece creates an engaging and satisfying design.  Brainard Farm, Vermont seems to share some of the formal, aesthetic decisions as much as it shares rural subject matter.  The textural qualities of these surfaces similarly activate a familiar pastoral scene.  In some ways the color palette pushing just outside the boundaries of local color is reminiscent of Wolf Kahn. It’s always interesting to me to see the broad range of your painting practice, and how approaches vary according to subject. While I’ve had the pleasure of seeing your work in person in recent years, I do hope you consider sharing your new work on the site.