"My art, whether gouache paintings or digitally imaged prints, has developed from my ongoing fascination with and observation of the Southwest and West, especially Northern Arizona and the Four Corners regions. I have spent many many hours hiking and photographing in those areas ‘taking in’ the skies, the changes in weather and time of day, the space, the color, and the cultural history. The sense of the place pervades my work in the studio where I attempt to visually describe the presence, beauties, and powers of this environment.
    My artistic technique is to attempt the exquisite in execution and aesthetic whether the specific piece is created electronically or traditionally. I am drawn to richness and depth of surface texture and pattern; a complexity of color relationships; contradictory forms and structural inter-relationships; a balance of delicacy and strength. It is fascinating for me as artist to be able to work with pieces of my paintings and my photographs and re-combine them to result in a cohesive image with its own reality and sense of presence.      

    The digital prints are part of my ongoing investigation of digital imaging in which I rework my photographs of nature. I develop these images through painterly manipulation and compositing techniques using Adobe Photoshop on the computer. They are printed on an Epson wide-format digital printer either on Somerset mould-made 100% rag paper from Cuthbert Mills in England or other archival fine art papers with Epson archival inks. I do my own scanning, editing, and printing."

 

On the Marsh and Wetlands work:

    "It was April when I would go to the Hamilton-Trenton Marsh at pre-dawn and shoot in that early morning light. There was a quiet awakening not just to the day but also to spring, a stirring of life with remnants of the dark and grey. That is what I intended to capture—first on film and then in digital form.
    I use photography in the ‘field’ to capture moments for further development on the computer. In recent years I’ve concentrated on sky and land vistas, particularly those of the Southwest. The "wetlands-marsh" experience was unique in its intimacy and its particulars. It has inspired new approaches in my recent imaging work."

 

-Ruane Miller