Capturing Light with Shantel Miller - Living A Creative Life at Opus

Opus Resource Library

Capturing Light with Shantel Miller

"The sense of passion and earnestness translates to the painting when you are patient with yourself."

Shantel Miller

We are thrilled to be introducing Shantel Miller in this episode of Living A Creative Life.

Artist Shantel Miller is a Jamaican-Canadian visual artist known for her vibrant reimagined spaces that intricately depict pivotal moments in Black lives. In this episode of Living A Creative Life, we continue our theme of Materials At Work.

To see more of Shantel Miller, visit shantel-miller.format.com

Shantel Miller photographed in studio.

Shantel Miller, "Revealing", Oil on Panel, 24 x 18 in., 2020

Beyond the Material with Shantel Miller

For Shantel, Oil painting can provide a patient, meditative process, allowing exploration of colours and their narrative potential, enabling a deeper understanding of subjects and reflecting passion and earnestness through careful, time-intensive strokes

Understanding Colours

Shantel shares how exploring the narrative power of colours can evoke emotional and physical spaces, using their properties for expressive storytelling.

Explore Oil Paint

💡 Pro Tip

Expanding your colour palette can help you harness the diverse working properties that pigments offer. Incorporate a variety of colours, including transparent ones for effective glazing, opaques for excellent coverage, high-tinting strength options, and faster-drying pigments, too.

Behind every Brush

Shantel explains how every brush possesses its unique signature, offering a diverse spectrum of strokes that can be employed to express an idea or convey an emotion.

Explore Opus Fortissimo Brushes

💡 Pro Tip

Use large bristle brushes for washes and broad backgrounds, mid-size bristle brushes with sharp edges for some detail, and small round sable brushes for finer details in your artwork.