Ian Millard

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About me

I have recently come back to painting, my first love, after being away from it for quite some time now. I work primarily with oils, but I also use tonal media such as charcoal, graphite, ink and white acrylic washes. I now want to set up my stall again and tout my wares a little and see what happens.

My painterly concerns are with colour first and foremost, my subjects tend to be those who shout for my attention the loudest - often family, but lately also that biggy – nature; particularly the sea and cliffs and occasionally something a little more mythical. Currently I am gathering those sea and cliffs and the wind-twisted trees and gorse of Hastings, attempting to wrest some control, placing them where I want them and hoping they stay there. This sometimes means changing their purpose and sometimes letting them be.

I suppose you could say that I aim for the high and majestic – amongst other things by borrowing a leaf or two from Turner’s book for example - but am often faced with answering to something more personal. The result can be a little mysterious and perturbing in flavour, and more often than not, and ideally, a surprise to myself.

I went to art school and all that stuff, and one day some time ago I got chatting with American painter Elaine de Kooning on a train on the way to Cornwall I found I learned all I needed to know about Art and Attitude from her, her husband and their old friends - who, in their kindly and wise way, mercifully freed me from most of my desires for fame and fortune - and here I still am