An Essay by My Exhibition Curator & Director, Diana Fitzgibbon

A few weeks ago I spoke with Diana Fitzgibbon, my exhibition curator and director for my upcoming Untamed Landscapes show, about the story and meaning behind the paintings from my soon-to-be-released Untamed Landscapes collection. She then wrote the beautiful essay below based on that conversation. Somehow she has told the story much better than I did and captured me in a light that I thought only I knew about myself and my work.

— Brie Milam

Artist Brie Milam Paints Watercolor Impressions of North Texas, Inspired by Memory and Imagination

Her solo show, "Untamed Landscapes," opens, for one night only, in Addison, Texas on Friday, October 6, 2023.

Diana Fitzgibbon, September 13, 2023

Brie Milam was searching for something. But what was it? Was it inspiration? Purpose? A sense of place? 

Ever curious and always thoughtful, Milam endeavored to make sense of these existential questions. She packed up her car and hit the road, embarking on a solo artist retreat just outside of Waco. Setting up a makeshift studio in a charming rented cabin, she woke every day with the sunrise to ponder the great questions of life. On the first morning, she woke before dawn and went up to the roof. She painted the sun as it peeked over the horizon. For three days, Milam photographed, sketched and painted in plein air. In the following weeks as she refined and built on these paintings, she realized that the works emerging were not copies of the landscapes she had viewed, but amalgamations of memory and fantasy—a dreamy hybrid of worlds. Combining real views with imagined realities, she created a Tex-Mex blend of lush countrysides, idyllic moors and expansive fields. 

Eventually she landed on a phrase that summed up her musings:

Here can be anywhere.

Which meant, home was wherever she was. More than a physical place, home was in her mind—a constant travel companion on the grand journey of life.

And thus, a new series of winsome landscapes was born. 

Many things about these landscapes might feel familiar—with good reason. Allowing intuition to guide her hand, Milam pulls from a well of universal emotions—distant memories of childhood, still yet-to-be-processed feelings from the present and the fleeting sensation of our dream worlds. These intimate watercolors tap into a place of nostalgia. Within the rolling hills and glowing skies, reality dissolves into mists of memory, enfolded in moors of earnest longing.

Milam’s landscapes are marked by a peaceful and personal quality. They are unhurried and intentional, charting a course through memory and imagination. After her retreat, she continued to explore these themes, drawing inspiration from frequent long drives between her family's homes spread across the North Texas area. Culling memories and imagery from the rolling scenes passing by her windows, Milam expresses her feelings through a pretty palette of pale pinks and periwinkle skies, anchored by verdant hills and wistful grasses.

Milam is a deep thinker and feeler. She considers everything. She once mused, “Have you ever been struck by something so beautiful, it makes your heart physically ache?” If you know her, these types of questions are not uncommon. She goes on to note that she often feels this sense of longing on roadtrips—the world whizzing by like a film strip. Driving solo, she has time to notice the blooming trees, fields of grass and flowers—all the good, green earth.

Milam’s earlier work is filled with expressive and minimalist abstract pieces, illustrations, and artwork inspired by nature. Her landscapes combine these techniques with a mature touch, something only years of experience can provide. Sometimes bending toward near-abstraction, the soft pinks, blush skies, and olive hills of these landscapes converse in a finely developed visual vocabulary. Yet, no matter the subject, her process always centers on mindfulness, authenticity, intuition and expression.

Brie Milam (b. 1988, Dallas, TX) studied Sociology and Spanish at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. Her career began nearly a decade ago when she made her first watercolor painting. Over the years she has taught sold out workshops, created a clay jewelry line, designed hand-painted clothes and led guided art and meditation classes. She has exhibited in group shows and has placed work in several private collections. Her commissioned works can be found in both private and public collections. Her first solo exhibition of watercolor paintings debuts October 2023. Milam lives and works in Dallas, TX.

Photographs by Cortney Morentin