(b.1964) After graduating from Art Center College of Design in 1990, Terry Miura headed out to New York City to pay his dues. There he spent six years working as a freelance illustrator, creating imagery for such clients as Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Random House, and GRP Records, just to name a few.

In between illustration deadlines, Miura painted his beloved New York City, and began a career as a painter by showing his work in neighborhood cafes, hair salons, and juried shows. Before long one of his cityscapes was noticed by a gallery owner, and he had his first 'real' show in 1995. After returning to the West Coast in 1996, he established his studio in the Sacramento area, and transitioned to becoming a full-time painter. During this period, Miura turned his attention to the art of landscape painting, working directly from nature to study the perception of visual reality, and how it might translate into individual expression. “I’m interested in understanding the language of landscape painting, so that I can use it to explore the mysteries of emotions, memories, and identity.”

To that end, Miura does not limit himself to painting traditional landscapes. “I’m looking for subtle emotional responses, “ he explains. “not just from trees and rivers, but buildings, people, atmosphere, light... any subject can trigger an emotional response. I’m perpetually trying to figure out what that trigger is.” In recent years his pursuit has found expression in abstraction; “I start with the literal and the logical, but then I let intuition take over. It’s always a precarious balance between a logical representation of the visual world, and a visceral response to the abstract quality of the paint itself. Too much logic and it remains predictable and boring. Too much abstraction and it devolves into sloppy chaos. Poetry exists in the balance.”

In California, Miura is represented by The Christopher Hill Gallery in St. Helena and Healdsburg, Waterhouse Gallery in Santa Barbara, Sekula’s Fine Art in Sacramento, Holton Studio in Berkeley and California Museum of Fine Art in Los Angeles. On the East Coast he is represented by Sloane Merrill Gallery in Boston.

His paintings are found in private and public collections, including pieces in the permanent collection at the Crocker Art Museum, California Museum of Fine Art, and the Smithsonian Institute.