Surreal Paintings of Serene Women Surrounded By a Beautiful Chaos of Color

Contemporary Figurative Paintings by Soey Milk

“Inflorescence”

Artist Soey Milk crafts beautiful portraits of women that contain elements of calm alongside calamity. She does this by implementing visual push and pull in all of her works. Some parts of the composition, such as the faces of her subjects, are tightly rendered in a realistic style while the backdrops are gestural with visible brushstrokes and paint drippings. The results are compelling images that invite you to consider the motifs embedded in the artist’s work.

Milk finds that inspiration for her paintings can come from anywhere, and so she tries to be cognizant of when an idea arrives. “My process,” she explains, “usually starts from a really tiny scribble. Most times, I’m thinking about something and it comes to life on a piece of napkin.” She doesn’t sit down at a desk and plan out her work, and it’s this openness—that her art is inspired by her everyday existence—that makes the pieces so personal. “My paintings are of people in my life,” Milk tells My Modern Met. “Each piece highlights a certain period of my memory, making the pieces a point in my timeline of life.”

While paintings represent Milk’s most well-known pieces, sketching is important to her, too. “I've been drawing lately. To me, drawing is like a blueprint for a future painting. It is a careful search for the path, the nature of it a meditative one.”

Artist Soey Milk crafts contemporary paintings of women that have elements of calm alongside calamity.

Contemporary Figurative Paintings by Soey Milk

“For the Times I Could Not Use My Breath”

Contemporary Figurative Paintings by Soey Milk

“The Life Between Words”

Contemporary Figurative Paintings by Soey Milk

“Panicle Mist: Blue and Mauve”

Contemporary Figurative Paintings by Soey Milk

“Green and Gold”

Contemporary Figurative Paintings by Soey Milk

“Silver Dagger Headdress”

Contemporary Figurative Paintings by Soey Milk

“Noname My Heart”

Contemporary Figurative Paintings by Soey Milk

“Thoughts to Make Love to and Sleep With”

Contemporary Figurative Paintings by Soey Milk

“Juniper”

Sketching is an important part of Milk's process. “I've been drawing lately,” she tells My Modern Met. “To me, drawing is like a blueprint for a future painting.”

Contemporary Drawings by Soey Milk

Drawings by Soey Milk

Drawings by Soey Milk

Soey Milk: Website | Facebook | Instagram 

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Soey Milk.

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Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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