Artist depicts ‘urban forest’
Blue Island painter captures Southland’s beauty, blemishes
When it comes to portraying nature, Elaine Miller is all about delivering the beautiful with the ugly, the waxing with the waning, the living with the dying away. “That’s kind of my mission,” she said. “To get people understand how important our natural world is to us. It’s the circle of life. When we watch it in the seasons, it can seem sad sometimes, but it’s also about regeneration.”
On Labor Day weekend inside her studio in Blue Island, she contemplated finishing touches on an 8-by-10 foot canvas painting of the Dan Ryan Woods.
Suspended on nails and grommets, and minus a wooden frame, the dark, snowy scene resembles a backdrop for a play. In it, night closes in and lights from a burrito restaurant shine above bare treetops. Dead branches, leaves and trash dot the ground.
“There so much litter in winter,” Miller said. “I did have a coyote where that trash can is, but it wasn’t working. I painted over it. I can’t decide whether to paint a plastic bag in the trees.”
Despite unsightly signs of man in what Miller describes as “a kind of a scrubby urban forest,” the image still conveys the haunting sanctity of nature.
The painting is one of four nearly life-size scenes conveying the change of seasons in Dan Ryan Woods. The large art works will be on display starting Sept. 25 in a solo exhibition called “Remnants and Remains” in the Simmerling Gallery at the Beverly Arts Center.
Among 10 smaller pieces included in the exhibit is “Regenerate ,” an oil and wax on wood panel showing green plants transitioning to brown leaf matter. Other images show ripening wild fruits and seed pods amid vegetation
compromised by the changing of the seasons.
“I’ve always felt happy in nature,” said Miller who lives in North Beverly and draws inspiration from walking her dog in Dan Ryan Woods.
An avid gardener, she recalls being in her 20s and arguing with her family about the validity of efforts like Green Peace. “It used to be about conservation and preservation of nature. Now so much has been lost, we have to regenerate. It’s about regeneration.”
Miller honed her painting skills while making backdrops for movies, plays and musical productions, everything from nature scenes, marble cathedrals and rusty school buses.
“I feel that’s how I learned to paint, by painting eight hours a day, five days aweek,” she said.
She’s created scenes for The Southwest Symphony Orchestra in Palos Heights and Chicago’s Lyric Opera, but she’s also painted expansive murals for people’s homes, including a 1950s-era rendition of Chicago’s Michigan Avenue.
This summer, she completed an outdoor mural at the Farmer’s Market space at 95th Street and Longwood Drive in Beverly. To create the image of rolling farm fields, Miller considered vintage advertising art appearing on produce labels.
“That was just such a nostalgic era,” Miller said.
Unlike the market space, the exhibition at BAC promises to deliver a dose of reality along with nature. Andit’s not the first time Miller has created art on amassive scale inspired by the Cook County Forest Preserve.
In 2018, thanks to a grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Miller created urban forest scenes from the preserve for a display of public art on billboards. The art graced South Western Avenue for three months and coincided with the Beverly Art Walk.
“My goal is to reconnect people with nature and make them understand, we depend on nature not just for food and air but for emotional sustenance too,” she said.
Miller’s “Remnants and Remains” exhibition opens with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday and runs through Nov. 8 at The Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St. Admission is free.