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The ocean is a powerful force: it can wreak havoc and then restore calm after chaos. The rhythmic ebb and flow of waves and tides is a constant. The sea changes and still survives. If the ocean should become motionless, it would die.
These ruminations persisted as Mark Milroy painted at Flying Point Beach in Water Mill last year. But far from being melancholy, these musings inspired hope. The 39-year-old had experienced a sudden heart attack two years before and a sense of his mortality and a reality that now included daily medication were setting in.
“The ocean is a metaphor,” Mr. Milroy said. “The heart is continuously beating. The ocean ebbs and flows. The ocean never stops. If the ocean would stop, it would die. I wanted to put that movement in my paintings and the idea of ‘sink or swim’ and ‘flight or fight.’”
The result of Mr. Milroy’s decision to shun depression and channel energy into art is a series of powerful paintings that capture the changing moods of the ocean. But the paintings are more than just oceanscapes, said Mr. Milroy. Each is an intimate portrait that captures the mood of a single moment and is imbued with psychological power inspired by the ocean.
Last Saturday, Mr. Milroy walked through an exhibition of his works at The Gallery in Sag Harbor and recalled the personal journey that led to their creation. Raised near the Great Lakes in Canada, Mr. Milroy first saw the ocean when he was 23 years old, he said. What struck him was the ocean’s monstrous power.
About 14 years later, in 2005, Mr. Milroy was living in Brooklyn, scheduled in one week’s time to marry author and journalist Kelly McMasters. Sudden chest pains were dismissed as wedding jitters by EMTs called to his home. The couple honeymooned in Montauk and Mr. Milroy pushed aside his unease. He filled their efficiency motel room with watercolors of the ocean.
A second heart attack struck six months later and a stent was inserted into his right coronary artery. Depression soon followed. The couple came out to the Hamptons that summer, and Mr. Milroy painted the seascapes again. This time, his experience was different. The watercolors and their delicate washes remained in their box.
His life had changed and so had his art. If he wanted to survive, he would have to fight to do so. The ocean was no longer a wondrous part of an inspiring landscape, but symbolic of his own battle to reclaim joy and wonderment. If he was going to rejoin life, he’d have to mirror the ocean and discover if he would “sink or swim,” if he would end up fighting or fleeing, he said.
In a nod to this benchmark moment, most of the new works created in the past two years contain a red “life-ring” in the composition. It was the “life-ring” and the power of the paintings that grabbed the attention of Rebecca Cooper, owner and director of The Gallery.
“I think his paintings are about the restorative power of the human spirit,” she said. “I was so taken by the symbol of the life ring. It’s a symbol of hope and I think that’s especially relevant in the times we live in.”
Helping his spirit to heal and enabling him to paint his latest body of work was an invitation to work in the barn on the Water Mill estate of George and Joan Hornig. The weekly access to the ocean proved to be the door to new inspiration and improved health, Mr. Milroy said.
To conjure the life force of the ocean, Mr. Milroy channels his own physicality through the paintbrush. Thick swashes of oil paint are brushed with a heavy hand. Fields of color are filled with motion created by multiple brush strokes. The ultimate aim is to make a portrait with psychological depth, Mr. Milroy said. It’s not ocean or waves or dunes or birds that moves him the most—it’s the way the elements inspire him to capture a unique moment and reveal life’s vitality, fragility and possibilities.
“All of the work has a greater depth than existed before,” he said. “I want to waken the spirit using my voice as an artist.”
Most of Mr. Milroy’s paintings in the exhibition at The Gallery were made last year while he was in residence at the Hornigs’ home. Mr. Milroy has 16 paintings on view, including four watercolors made before his heart attack. Other artwork can be viewed at his website, www.markmilroy.com.
The exhibition, “Hampton Beaches,” also features vibrant paintings by John Kneapler. The show remains on view through July 5. For information, visit www.thegallerysagharbor.com or call 725-7707.
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