Paton Miller (born 1953) Seattle, Washington USA.
Paton's natural talent as an artist was apparent from an early age when his parents noticed him drawing caricatures of the family. This interest in the family condition grew into an interest of the human condition leading Paton to his early studies of the works by Daumier, Goya and Hogarth. The family moved to Hawaii when Paton was quite young and he began his formal art studies at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
After his studies there, in 1973, Paton embarked on a year long journey that took him west from the island of Oahu, Hawaii, to the Philippines, China, much of Asia and Europe, finally returning to the United States in New York. Visiting a family friend in Southampton, NY, Paton experienced a succession of good fortune beginning with a scholarship from Long Island University, awarded for his outstanding collection of drawings and paintings made during his travels. Shortly after graduation (1978) Began Paton is exhibiting a His work in the NYC. With In the ensuing years he had over 15 solo exhibitions and numerous group shows across New York, and more around the United States and the world.
Paton's penchant for capturing the comedy and drama of the human condition continues to this day. Reminiscing of those first early days in Southampton Paton remarked on his first exposure to the titans of contemporary art. "I found myself in the studios of Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, Larry Rivers and Frank Stella. Each artist a character in bold relief. It was a great experience for a young artist."
Paton Miller's work is a combination of his early influences, his own life experiences, his personal life, and his extensive adventures. He recently commented that when you are an artist you belong to a fraternity that dates back to the Lascaux Caves. "We carry the history of the artist that came before us in the strong influences they have upon us," he said. "The result being a combination of their great work and our own talent and experiences in life."
Many writers have commented on Paton Miller's unique works, for example this last paragraph is from an in depth review in ArtForum from a solo exhibition at the Nohra Haime Gallery. Donald Kusbit wrote: "These pictures make clear a familiar, but often forgotten point: that the expressivity of a representational scene often depends upon the abstract intensity generated in response to the medium. Without this visionary intensity, representational painting can become a kind of perceptual journalism. It becomes all the more important when the artist is picturing inner rather then overt horror. The achievement of ecstatic abstractness also indicates that the artist is master of the scene, rather than overwhelmed by what he or she is rendering - to make it appear magically upon command, which is what Miller's version of realism does."