The paintings in the Arena Series are a continuation of Marion Miller’s paean to the controlled circus environment of horses, riders and handlers in an indoor arena. She is pursuing the special visuals of these moments — the weight and physicality of the horses, the balances of both horse and rider, the sense of momentum and speed, the surprises of scale and juxtaposition, dimness, dust and the glow of an occasional velvet flank.
The central actor on stage, however, is light, both illustrated and generated. The paintings are variously set within high- or low contrast systems, warm and cold coloration, and the light establishes distances, articulates or dissolves surfaces, shrinks and expands space.
Tightly structured and painted with what Sir Lawrence Gowing once identified as “the consistent and exact delicacy that is I think Miller’s alone…”, these paintings are a celebration of and an invitation to a world of weight and mystery.
