Michael Miller is an oil painter who captures and preserves the essence of rural America through atmospheric landscape paintings. Focusing primarily on historic barns and pastoral scenes, Miller employs a tonalist palette to create dreamlike compositions that evoke a sense of fading memories. His artistic journey emerged from a deep connection to history, initially sparked by childhood visits to Civil War sites like Gettysburg. Though largely self-taught, Miller transitioned from early artistic experiments to a full-time painting career in 2016, following his first successful art show in 2014. His work has earned recognition through the Nemacolin Art Residency program, where he expanded his practice to include plein air painting. Miller's paintings serve as visual documentation of disappearing rural landscapes, inviting viewers to contemplate the passing of a simpler era through his distinctive atmospheric approach.Artist Statement:My work is a never ending quest to find the beauty and truth that lies in the simplicity of rural America. Growing up, my parents took me to many Civil War battlefields. Even at a young age, the barns and wide open well manicured fields made a huge impression on me. They seemed to be frozen in time and there was something sacred woven into those places. I started painting landscapes because I didn’t know how to express my love for them in any other form. It is my hope that my work freezes a way of life that is passing, beckoning all viewers to reflect on some distant memory. I approach each painting differently, in the past I relied mostly on memory when building a composition. Today I’m focused more on the specific details and locations, trying to understand why I’m drawn to them and how they move me. Sometimes I’ll use reference photos or do a rudimentary plein air sketch of a location before taking it back to the studio and building from it. I like to think of my work as representational while borrowing techniques from tonalist and impressionist painters. I work primarily in oils and paint on linen and canvas surfaces. I strive to create a quality product by using some of the finest art supplies and pigments. I am self taught as an artist, though there have been plenty of artists who have passed down sage advice, as well as inspired me. I live and work in NE Ohio