ArtsCenter exhibition celebrates 52 years of Steven Ray Miller’s lifelike paintings

From 1972 to now, local artist Steven Ray Miller has created a large catalog of paintings reflecting the places he’s been, and some he hasn’t been to just yet.

The ArtsCenter located in Carrboro is currently showcasing Miller’s creations in an ongoing exhibit from Dec. 6 to Jan. 21.

Miller puts love into every one of his art pieces — figuratively and literally, with his trademark being little hearts hidden in every painting. Miller started this practice in 1978 with his painting "America’s Heartland," where he painted an Iowa landscape with a sky made out of heart-shaped brushstrokes.

He’s a social butterfly, loves the game show "Jeopardy!" and refers to himself as a "Forrest Gump type" with more life stories than he can count.

“He’s kind of a breath of fresh air,” ArtsCenter Gallery Manager Caroline Haller said. “Very, very fun, doesn’t take himself too seriously, which is cool.”

At the exhibit, visitors will find anything from watercolor paintings to glass paintings.

“He tried different techniques,” Miller’s longtime friend, Charlie Seton said. “I think that makes him stand out as an artist, because he didn't find something, and then just rehash it in a slightly different way again and again.”

The gallery’s arrangement isn’t a question of aesthetics, but instead the timeline of Miller’s life. The collection begins with his first-ever canvas painting, created about a mile and a half away from the ArtsCenter in the summer of 1972.

He attended Duke University, studying psychology and art, which was when his love for painting began to flourish.

“Duke's art department was so small, literally, zippo, nothing,” Miller said. “So, I enrolled at UNC for two art courses.”

Since he began pursuing art, Miller expanded his horizons, beginning to work with opaque watercolors, painting landscape portraits and anything else that spoke to him.

Many times, Miller finds inspiration from the sights he encounters.

Some of these paintings are created from photos sent to him for commission, while others are scenes he comes across himself. For example, Miller was once inspired while driving along California's coast.

“I’m traveling along, and I see it,” he said. “Stop the car, hop out, take a bunch of pictures. You don’t know if those pictures are going to work because this is film.”

Three paintings made by Miller in 1990 stand out: “Still Waters” — his most popular — which he stumbled upon in Marblehead, Mass. and has been known to make customers seasick, and two that are commissioned paintings of Italian canals in Venice, where he has never visited. 

One of the Venice painting’s captions reads, “Although I have not (yet) been to Europe, I have enjoyed the opportunity to paint several commissions from around the world. If I ever become a contestant on JEOPARDY, and win some money, I will visit Venice.”

Since the gallery’s opening, friends of Miller have visited and read this specific notecard, and decided to give Miller a generous gift in pursuit of him traveling to Italy and creating a painting of whatever he saw.

He recently got an iPhone 15 Pro Max and looks forward to trying it out on the beautiful Italian landscapes.

Even in the more realistic paintings Miller has made, there are many hidden hearts, allowing buyers to engage in a scavenger hunt of sorts. Some have two or three hidden, while others have much more.

“53 hearts in this one, and I did it when I was 53,” Miller said about a painting he made of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. “Total coincidence, I count them after I’m done.”

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