Artospective: Male Portraits by Joshua Miels.

Brothers in Arms

An Interview with Joshua Miels.

Who and where are you from?

Based Adelaide, South Australia

How you got into this?

I was initially a graphic designer, but felt I was getting enough creativity in my work. I decided to try my hand at water colour initially and as my confidence grew I turned to large scale oil painting.

What is your driving force?

My driving force is my passion to create. Within my work I am looking to remove the stigma of mental health in males. Due to a family history of mental health and addiction, art for me is a way of dealing and understanding.

What kind of work you do and why?

My works look to capture the vulnerability of people and the emotions that people try to hide from others. Spending countless hours adding layer upon layer of paint I produces artworks that are not only striking, but deep and powerful. Painted predominantly with oil paint, each piece begins with a subject, but with a large amount of experimentation, each art piece takes on its own journey from start to finish. The pieces challenge viewers to draw upon their own emotions and personal experiences.

Tell us more about your work.

People give false fronts, to give the illusion that they are fine. This is particularly true with males. Men are still being asked to live up to old fashioned expectations – be strong, be brave, be protective. I look to challenge this assumption. Through my portraits I aim to express the ambiguity of physical emotion by limiting what feelings my subjects portray. These large-scale paintings of males, most of whom I know personally appear somewhat nonchalant. Unable to immediately relate with direct human emotions, viewers look past what they see at face-value, prompting people to question the real individual.