MILLER SANDS

Acrylic on Canvas 50 x 76 cms Low Glaze

I would just like to add a personal note here about the artist John Miller and his work.

In the early 1980's I first went to an exhibition at Messum's Gallery in Cork Street of John Miller's amazing seascapes and cathedral like exterior-interior paintings that featured his characeristic lone figure, long sand beaches and isolated island clouds.

There is no denying the influence that this artist had on my early work and in a way on my painting development. While in my early treatment of seascapes I was prone to borrow much of the line and fluidity that I so admired in his beach paintings and indeed was quite shameless about the use of his signature isolated clouds.

One day in my studio a gallery owner who was putting a show on for me asked if he might refer to me as The New John Miller in the exhibition catalogue which appalled me somewhat and from that moment on I made every conscious effort to depart from my gravitation towards his style and develop my own idiosyncrasies. In fact I was so concerned about how close I may have come to copying or plagiarizing this brilliant artist that I approached him at his next Messum's exhibition Private View and told him what had happened.

"So long as you are enjoying your painting, that's all that matters, so long it is your paintings that people are enjoying and not a reflection of mine" was his reply.

I knew what the answer meant to me and soon was filling the skies with very non John Miller epic cloud and whipping the horizons to a storm with my brush, uncovering all the new excitement of painting from a fresh perspective without the safety net that was this artists template and example.

Miller Sands is the last piece that I did in the Miller style in 1999.

John Miller died on 23rd July 2002

James Maconochie