Nick Miller (artist) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Nick Miller
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Nick Miller, Sligo studio
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| Born | 2 August 1962 London, England
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| Occupation | Visual artist, painter |
Nick Miller is a famous Irish artist born in London in 1962. He is known for making painting and drawing exciting again. He works in traditional art styles like portraits (pictures of people), landscapes (pictures of nature), and still-life (pictures of objects).
Nick Miller has a special way of painting. He works directly from real life. This unique method is called encounter painting. It means he paints what he sees and experiences right in front of him.
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About Nick Miller
In 1984, Nick Miller moved to Ireland to follow his passion for painting. He had just finished studying Development Studies at the University of East Anglia. He has lived in different parts of Ireland, including County Clare and Dublin. Since 1992, he has mostly lived in County Sligo.
In 2018, after living in Ireland for 34 years, he became an Irish citizen. Nick Miller is now one of Ireland's most important modern painters. In 2001, he was chosen to be part of Aosdána. This is a special group that honors artists who have made a big impact on Irish Art.
Amazing Art Shows
Nick Miller's art has been shown in many important museums. He had big solo exhibitions (shows just for his work) at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. One show was called South African Works in 1994. Another was Nick Miller and the Studio of Edward McGuire in 2015-2016.
His art was also shown at The Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin in 2003. This show was named (Figure To Ground). Other exhibitions include (Genre) at The Butler Gallery in Kilkenny Castle in 2004. His Truckscapes: Drawings were shown in 2007 at Limerick City Gallery of Art and in Paris. In 2008, he showed Truckscapes: Paintings in New York.
How Nick Miller Creates Art
The Mobile Studio
In 1997, Nick Miller came up with a clever idea. He turned an old British Telecom truck into a mobile art studio! This special studio allowed him to paint large pictures and drawings outdoors. He could work in the landscape while being protected from the weather.
This mobile studio helped him create many artworks over 15 years. He explored the Irish landscape in a new way. His "Truckscapes" paintings are famous for showing the doorway of the truck. This doorway, covered in paint, framed the view of nature. It showed how the artist saw the world from inside his unique studio.
Some of his "Truckscapes" paintings are in major collections. These include "From Cogan's Shed" (2004) at the National Gallery of Ireland. Another "From Cogan's Shed" (2007) is at Limerick City Gallery of Art. "Whitethorn, truck-view" (2000-2001) is at The Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Painting People: Portraits
Painting portraits, or pictures of people, is a very important part of Nick Miller's art. He believes that every artwork is like a memory of a real meeting. He calls this his "encounter painting" style.
From 1996 to 2000, he created a series of large drawings called CLOSER. He drew people he knew well, like family and friends. These were unusual portraits. For example, he drew Corban (1996), which is now in the IMMA collection. This drawing is of the Irish artist Corban Walker. Nick Miller made these drawings very close up. He would even sit on the paper with his subjects!
Nick Miller has painted many people, both famous and not. He painted the author John McGahern in 1998. This painting is in The Niland Collection in Sligo. He also painted a full portrait of John Hogan (2004). John Hogan was a farmer and Nick Miller's neighbor for 16 years. This painting is now in the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin.
In 2014, Nick Miller won the first Hennessy Portrait Prize. This award included a special job to paint the Irish musician Donal Lunny for the National Portrait Collection. He won the prize for his 2013 painting, "Last sitting: Portrait of Barrie Cooke". Barrie Cooke was a fellow artist and friend who passed away in 2014. Both of these paintings are now in the National Gallery of Ireland.
Inspired by Another Artist
In 2014, the Irish Museum of Modern Art invited Nick Miller to work with the art supplies of another famous Irish painter. This was Edward McGuire (1932–1986), who was known for his portraits and still-life paintings.
Nick Miller spent time at the museum, looking at McGuire's studio items and personal things. He painted a series of still-life pictures of objects and the many stuffed birds that McGuire used to paint. Nick Miller also invited people who had posed for Edward McGuire to sit for him. They talked about Edward, sometimes more than 30 years later. This helped Nick Miller connect with the artist he had never met.
The exhibition that came from this work was called Nick Miller and the Studio of Edward McGuire. It was shown at the museum from November 2015 to May 2016. The show featured paintings by both artists on similar topics. It also included an exhibit of McGuire's studio items and a film Nick Miller made about McGuire's famous "Colour Dictionary".
Still-Life: Everyday Objects
Nick Miller also works to make still-life painting exciting. Still-life is when artists paint objects that don't move. He often mixes still-life with portraits.
Since 2011, he has been painting parts of nature like flowers, weeds, branches, and even seaweed. He places them in different vases. These paintings are called Vessels: Nature Morte. Art critic Jackie Wullschläger said that Miller's paintings show how things grow and decay very quickly. She said, "flowers bloom, glisten, wilt within each rapid painterly performance." He painted these over several years to feel close to his mother as she was passing away.
In his more recent Rootless paintings, Nick Miller paints these still-life scenes on a very large scale. He shows how nature is powerful and real.
