Today we’d like to introduce you to Abigail Chase Miller
Hi Abigail Chase, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was thinking a lot about this question last night. I took a group of my friends to Hotel Granada in Midtown Atlanta which recently reopened. I created a commission painting for them. My gallery representative at SCAD Art Sales presented some of my paintings. The designer of the hotel liked my style of painting. I started to I think back to the beginning wanting so badly to be a master painter and having no idea how to get there. All I posessed was a huge desire to be good at painting. Now I am finally good enough, and my friends get to celebrate the final product with me. One friend of mine asked me how I got such a great opportunity. Luck and preparation has to meet opportunity, and being in the right place at the right time. I went through years and years of trying things. I went through years and years of developing my eye and personal style. I honed in on what I thought was pretty and what made great art by studying other artists’ works. Studying nature and taking lots of photos has been a huge part of my story as well. This has continued to define my art sense. Now that sometimes other people can agree with me on what a beautiful painting is, getting to share my own reality with the world has been a great joy for me.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Life is never a smooth road. Just when I think I have reached some sort of stable ground, challenges appear. I believe this is a universal story for most of us. The way my road can get smoothed out is that I can always escape and get lost in an art project. Because I have achieved a level of artistic mastery, I also know that once I have completed a given project, the chance that it will turn out well is pretty high at this point. The exception is when I had Covid about a month ago. I tried to paint lake water. Through my Covid fever, I created something that looked nothing like a lake. It took me several weeks to rework the painting and create lake water. I certainly have a few stories like that too.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I specialize in commissions mainly because I really enjoy working with people and helping my clients achieve exactly what they want. I do not stop until I have. I am professional. I will finish a painting in a time frame I promise, having work at it until I exceed expectations. I am very good at color matching and I can paint all sorts of subject matter from landscapes, flowers and leaves to people portraits and pet portraits. I love going into a space and visualizing exactly what my clients need to bring a room together and then create that piece of artwork that fits into a space like a puzzle piece. I have mastery of brush stoke, composition and spacial concepts and understand how color works together. As a painter, this is what I enjoy the most.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success has meant different things to me at different times in my life. Generally, it means that if I set a goal and receive some sort of sign that I have reached that goal, I have achieved success. Success is an ongoing process that I work towards in my life. At one point my focus was to achieve success as an artist. Initially my goal is to paint to please myself. An added bonus includes other people complimenting me on my abilities or praise me for a completed commission. This is often good enough for me. I have come to a point in my life where I am comfortable with my success as an artist. Lately, success means that I have gone out and accomplished living my life to the fullest in a given day. Things I heavily focus on lately are time with family and friends as well as working out in the gym. I put this before spending time in the studio. Putting myself out there in a social situation and working on conversational skills, interpersonal skills as well as keeping my body and mind in a great place is the focus in my life. When I create and dedicate time in the studio, it is more satisfying to me knowing that other parts of my life are more balanced than ever.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.abigailchasemiller.com
- Instagram: @abigailchasemiller
