Featured Artist
Christopher Miller
Please introduce yourself and describe your background
Upon retiring 10 years ago from a career as a newspaper reporter and communications manager at Sandia National Laboratories, I focused on my art full time. I had first learned to paint with oils in the mid-1990s and quickly began to improve by taking workshops with wonderful New Mexico artists and by painting en plein air with other artists. I also served as president of the Rio Grande Art Association for three years and currently serve on the board of Plein Air Painters of New Mexico.
What is your earliest memory of creating art?
In grade school I used to love drawing portraits of family members. I would also set up still life arrangements in the dining room to draw. My mother saw some talent in me and paid for art classes where I learned to use charcoal and pastels.
Describe your primary medium and why you’ve chosen it for your artwork
I paint landscapes in oil. I love the texture and flexibility of oils. I have always admired oil paintings by the great artists, who inspired me to use the medium in my own art.
What other media have you used?
I still use the pencil to draw but have given up using charcoal and pastels. I have tried watercolors and had some success, but my medium of choice is oils.
Describe your artwork in 10 words or less
I paint landscapes and seascapes in oil.
What inspires your work?
The Impressionists, primarily Sisley, Monet and Pissarro, and the works by Van Gogh and Cezanne, have inspired me to paint landscapes and seascapes. The beautiful and varied New Mexico landscape inspires me to attempt to capture its beauty with oils on canvas.
If you could spend the day with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
My first choice would be Vincent Van Gogh. I would have loved to experience his passion for art by listening to him talk and by watching him paint.
Do you show your work commercially? If so, where?
I have been showing my paintings in Amapola Gallery on Albuquerque’s Old Town Plaza for the past two years. My art has also been in shows at art galleries in Albuquerque, Taos and Santa Fe, and in the Albuquerque Museum for ArtsThrive. I have also shown my paintings in various shows such as Encantada, the Gallery With a Cause, the New Mexico State Fair, and the Placitas Artist Series.
What is something most people don’t know about you?
In the 1970s I served in the Army Security Agency working with the CIA in Europe, and I attended college in Germany for two years, and in France for a year and a half in Paris and Strasbourg.
What advice would you offer younger artists just beginning their art careers?
If you have a passion for art, let it motivate you to devote the time and energy to always improve. Don’t be too timid or afraid to explore various media and art styles or to hold back from where your heart and mind lead you.
All Featured Artists
Christopher Miller
Please introduce yourself and describe your background Upon retiring 10 years ago from a career as a newspaper reporter and communications manager at Sandia National Laboratories, I focused on my art full time. I had first learned to paint with oils in the mid-1990s...
David Pagani
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Bill Sabatini
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Carol Mell
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Carolyn Berry
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Janet Bothne
Please introduce yourself and describe your background My love of art goes back to my childhood where I was given much encouragement and space to explore creativity. Over the years, I’ve explored many mediums and styles ranging from fastidious realism in oils, pastels...
Fran Krukar
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Beth Larsen
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Paul Rodenhauser
Please introduce yourself and describe your background Creative expression has become a way of life since my arrival in New Mexico sixteen years ago. I was fortunate to have already retired from my academic position at Tulane University School of Medicine when...
Bill Monthan
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Pauline Eaton
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Martha Rajkay
Please introduce yourself and describe your background Born in Hungary I come from a family of artists. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Masters in Art Therapy and a Masters in Social Work. I have been a photographer, commercial graphic artist and painter for...
Pat Kirby
Please introduce yourself and describe your background All children, except one, grow up. Spoiler alert. Me, Pat Kirby. I’m the one that didn’t grow up. Okay, so the real answer is Peter Pan, but spend five minutes with me and it’ll be obvious that emotional maturity...
Roger Green
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Sandra Lapham
I am a retired physician who specialized in internal medicine, with a focus on addiction medicine. In 1996 I formed a not-for-profit research center in Albuquerque that studied behavioral health and tested new medications to treat alcohol and drug use disorders....
Barbara Clark
Please introduce yourself and describe your background I am a painter who loves the outdoors and is grateful to get to do what I love. I am grateful because I understand what it is to get in the car every morning and talk myself into one more day of the daily grind. ...
Rick Snow
Please introduce yourself and describe your background I was raised as an “army brat” all over the world. I graduated with a degree in organic chemistry, physics and math, then immediately joined the Army. After serving for 20 years, I retired and began working as a...
Jennifer Noel
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Urey Lemen
Please introduce yourself and describe your background. My father was in the Navy so for the first twenty years of my life our family bounced around the world. I got my love of photography from Dad who was always taking family pictures. Like many my age, my first...
Victoria Mauldin
Describe your primary medium and describe why you’ve chosen it for your artwork. I work almost exclusively in acrylics. I have gravitated to acrylics as my preferred medium because they work well with my style of painting, which is often light to dark, light to dark,...
Ivana Starcevic
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Barbara Burzillo
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L. BaLoMBiNi
I don’t have a primary medium to work in. I’ve been a potter, weaver, jeweler, sculptor, painter in my life and I will choose materials that fit the thought. Right now acrylics are fast, easy and available. I have a BFA in Ceramics and Fiber Arts. Painting came later...
Gail Grambling Harrison
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Krysteen Waszak
Describe your primary medium and describe why you’ve chosen it for your artwork. My primary medium is oil painting on canvas with a focus on beginning my paintings outdoors on location, ‘en plein air’. I enjoy the extra challenges of ever-changing light and conditions...
Ken Duckert
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Jude Rudder
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Amy M. Ditto
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