Extract from the Courier and Advertiser, Tuesday, June 24th 2008, by Helen Brown
Reproduced by kind permission of D.C. Thomson and Co., Ltd.
Dundee painter Ian Miller is showing new work, inspired by Scottish roots and Australian travels, at an exhibition in the Dundee University Botanic Gardens running until June 29 2008.
Having retired from a long career as a teacher of art in 2002, his own creative career has since taken on a strong lease of life and two years ago, he and his lifelong friend and fellow artist, the late Jim Boyd, staged a joint show which proved personally satisfying and very successful.
Sadly, Jim's death last year prevented a joint follow-up, but Ian's current solo exhibition has a wide range of his recent pictures on show, work that has grown and developed over the past few years as he continues to observe a world around him that is both inspiring and awe-inspiring.
“My passion for landscape continues – I never get tired of that. I always find that I am engaged by fields, hedgerows, heather-clad moors, meandering tracks, the ever-changing sky. But it’s very refreshing and stimulating to find different and contrasting forms, texture and colour to inspire and generate new work.”
With family in Australia, travels with his wife, Norma, have provided new images, both in the grandeur of the Australian landscape and the very different cityscapes and urban spaces of Victoria, particularly Melbourne.
"Australia is so different from Scotland, yet so inspiring in its own way. In the cities and towns there are fascinating buildings, including domestic dwellings. Those of them that date from the Victorian and Edwardian eras can be highly decorated with wrought iron and cast-iron “lacework” fringes, on overhanging canopies, verandas and balustrades. These are reminiscent of homes in the American Deep South, especially New Orleans. Interestingly, many Australians, who had never been to the UK, assumed that we had exported this colonial style. But I think it owes more to France than Britain.”
“The landscape, too, is quite different. There are red and yellow ochres that result partially from the ground being quite parched. And the black shape of “dead” trees, which will revive from their fire-blackened state, the giant gums and the stringybarks, another form of eucalyptus, are so unlike what we have here. Australians often must yearn for lush greenery, but the visual effect of their arid conditions has its own beauty – to the outsider anyway. And when you come within range of terrain which could be classed as “outback” the horizons are very distant indeed.”
Ian found that the artistic tradition in Australia is very strong. Melbourne’s galleries house wonderful works by nationally famous painters and sculptors, many of whom are little known elsewhere, but whose work is both visually stunning and culturally significant.
“I spent thirty eight years informing students about the major figures in the European mainstream of painters. Now, having visited Australia several times, I’ve discovered a whole new world of wonderful painters that we know little about over here. One example is Margaret Preston (1875-1963), the subject of a major retrospective when we visited in 2007/2008. Influenced by the Post Impressionists, Margaret drew on the exotic plant life of Australia to create her decorative still lifes. I’d never heard of her, but her work impressed me immensely. I’m not alone in my discovery of Australian talent. Recently I had a conversation with Dundee painter, Joe McIntyre. He’s been to Australia. Like myself, he was particularly impressed by the wonderful landscapes of Arthur Streeton (1867-1943), a man not known here. I’m reminded of a comparable delight when, a few years ago, I “discovered” the Canadian Group of Seven.”
“It’s very refreshing to come upon a bank of new images which you absorb and, perhaps without realising it, can re-emerge in some form in your own work.”
Apart from landscapes, Ian also has a passion for still life, and for the details of form, pattern and texture. He derives a particular satisfaction from the combination of tonal, descriptive form with flat, decorative pattern. This has grown from the standard still life exercises of art school days, employed to develop craft skills. “There’s still immense satisfaction for me in rendering the shine on a teapot or the toe of a boot, or whatever. I’ve never become bored with the creation of three dimensions on a flat surface, but I suppose I’ve brought to that the influences of Matisse and the Post Impressionists.”
Retirement from teaching brought Ian the freedom and time to focus on his own creative impulse and he found that, rapidly, his work became very intensive, but enjoyably so. “It was a bit like being a student again, but without the restrictions of that status, and with a certain relaxation of attitude and an assurance in my approach that comes with experience. It’s a tremendous buzz to see a display of your accumulated work, and derive some satisfaction from your own creative output.”
Ian has been investigating the production of prints of his work, probably using the giclee process, and hopefully these will be available in the near future. This process is different from the traditional lithographic process and, using archivally-sound papers and inks, produces a high-quality, long-lasting finish.
Another exciting development for Ian is the creation of his own website. "It gives an added impetus and another dimension to the way I see things - and it's very exciting, like having a book published!"
Ian Miller's paintings were on show at the University Botanic Gardens in June 2008.
Background: detail, Still Life with Vintage Lino
© Copyright Ian G. Miller