Fine Art Blog

Category: Alexander Millar

  • Artists Jeff Rowland and Alexander Millar – dynamic duo paint together for charity!

    The pair have recently teamed up to paint a piece of art for the Birmingham (UK) Children’s Hospital. ‘Singin’ In the Rain’ was then produced as a limited edition print & has the classic aspects of both artists work, Millar’s ‘gadgie’ character and Rowland’s atmospheric rain & grey blue colours. Incidentally, both artists share a studio in Newcastle, so it must have been easy for them to take turns in painting the picture!


    ‘Singin’ In The Rain’ by Alexander Millar and Jeff Rowland
    (Available as a print or canvas limited edition)

    Millar and Rowland have pledged all of their royalties to Birmingham Children’s Hospital’s new state of the art renal unit, which is very generous, and on top of that, their publisher Washington Green has agreed to match the figure the artists make!!

    thanks

    Vicki

    Links:
    Birmingham Children’s Hospital: www.bch.org.uk

  • Elephants Parade London 2010 – Love Art, Love Elephants!

    Many of you may have ‘herd’ 🙂 about the Elephant parade that happened in London in June and July this year…


    Above: elephants painted by Peter Smith (left) and John Wilson (right)

    The Elephant Parade was the largest outdoor art exhibition ever staged in the UK, with 258 life sized baby elephant sculptures, set in locations all over London’s city centre. They were thought up and created for the leading wild elephant charity called ‘Elephant Family’ www.elephantfamily.org The interesting thing is that each elephant is a unique piece of art, hand painted by renowned artists and designers. The Parade ran for around two months; from May to July 2010. The elephants were placed in streets, parks and squares right across Central London at some of London’s leading landmarks.


    Above: elephants painted by Alexander Millar (left) and Jeff Rowland (right)

    With an estimated audience of 25 million (you cannot count every person in London who has viewed them can you?!), the campaign aimed to raise over £1 million for the endangered Asian elephant. It was a fresh and unique fundraising and awareness campaign that everyone could enjoy. Elephant Parade’s mission is to become the world’s largest financial support organisation for elephants, while attempting to save the Asian elephant from extinction in the wild.


    Above: elephants painted by Paul Kenton (left) and Louise Dear (right)

    Some of the UK’s finest artists and designers were sponsoring and painting an elephant including the previously blogged about: Alexander Millar, Jack Vettriano, Jeff Rowland John Wilson, Louise Dear, Paul Kenton & Peter Smith!…Many of these are artists licensed exclusively to Washington Green fine art publishers, so big thank you to them for allowing them to help out!

    After going on display in various locations all over London, a select number of elephants were then auctioned off by Sotheby’s, whilst the remainder were auctioned online.

    thank you

    Vicki

    Useful Links
    Elephant Parade Main site: www.elephantparadelondon.org
    Elephant Family Charity Main Site: www.elephantfamily.org
    Donate to Elephant Family: www.justgiving.com/elephantfamily/donate

  • Artist Alexander Millar – what inspires him to paint?

    A number of weeks we wrote a blog about newly published artist George Somerville and compared his work to that of Alexander Millar’s, today the blog will focus on Alexander.


    Young at Heart by Alexander Millar

    A professional artist for some 21 years, Alexander Millar was born and raised in a small mining village in 1960 near Glasgow called Springside & in his own words it felt more like growing up in the 1940s than the 1960s! He spent a lot of his youth around the older generation of Scots: men dressed in dark suits, smoking pipes, and burly women in aprons and headscarves.

    His dad worked for British Rail & as a child accompanying him to work, Alexander gained more inspiration for his future paintings as he found the old Railway stations to be very Romantic. Of course the architecture of these stations would have been nostalgic & a throw back to Scotland’s industrial past – this influence is seen throughout Alex’s paintings.


    My Family & Other Animals by Alexander Millar

    Moving to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne after finishing school aged 16, he tried several jobs before becoming a professional artist in 1988. He claims that it was quite a culture shock to move from the sleepy village he grew up in, to the hustle and bustle of the city, as you can imagine! But the city also had its own share of ‘Gadgies’ – (a northern Scottish term for an older generation man) to inspire his paintings.

    Fuelled by his extensive Childhood memories, he had a huge source of inspiration to work from, what is more astonishing is that Alexander is a self taught artist, which is an amazing achievement for any commercial artist.


    Keepy Uppy sculpture by Alexander Millar

    Thanks,

    Vicki

    Links
    www.scottish-memories.co.uk/
    www.accessingscotlandspast.org.uk/
    1960s Scotland

  • Merry Christmas Art Fans!!!

    Today I have created a Christmassy Blog to get us all in the mood for Christmas!!!

    Perhaps we will have a white Christmas this year! People are supposedly spending more money compared to last Christmas, so the news reporters are saying the recession is ending! Whether this is true or not we shall have to wait and see.

    So, many artists have created festive art, old and new, and here are a few of my favourites:


    Christmas Contemplation by Steven Binks

    Steven Binks is best known for his pictures of rusty farming machinery such as tractors. As a boy, he lived on a farm with his parents in Suffolk and this is why he likes to paint images of tractors. The above picture is much different to the majority of his art, as he rarely paints people as the focal point of his picture. This lady seems to have got her white Christmas after all!


    When I Saw Through His Disguise by Alexander Millar

    Alexander Millar Paints Gadgies; That is to say, old people. However, they always seem to be having fun in his pictures, on their way to or from an interesting event. The aptly named title mentioned above refers to his santa hood coming off which makes you realise its the same old gadgie that Millar always paints dressed as Santa Claus. His real hat gives his “disguise” away!


    Man Of Snow by Paul Horton

    Paul Hortons snowman range (he has done more than one) have proved very popular with his fans, selling out very quickly. His other snowman pictures features the snowman much smaller in the pictures, so I chose to show you this one so you can see why the fans love him so. Horton’s snowman reminds me of the innocence of youth at Christmas time:)


    Dont You Just Love This Time Of Year by John Wilson

    John Wison is well known by his fans for his child-like drawn characters in the foreground, yet adult backgrounds with miniature copies of famous art works by artists such as Van Gogh on the walls of his chosen background. It is a very clever style, at first glance the picture could be dismissed as childish and naiive. However, look closer and you see those characters are in our world!!


    Is That It? by Peter Smith

    Peter Smith paints pictures of lovable creatures which he has named “Impossimals”. This one in particular is a little disappointed in the size of his Christmas present! Smith’s art is simple yet endearing, and this one is no different. Fans of Peter Smith should be aware that he is currently making some new pieces, and has told us on his blog that one of his new Impossimals will have teeth and claws!! So this will be something new and exciting to look foward to!!


    Winter In The City by Henderson Cisz

    I just had to add this one as we have had the snow and ice already and so I thought this picture was apt! Cisz is well known for his cityscapes and his ability to catch the hustle and bustle of a city on his pictures. This picture looks as it is in London at the moment, icy roads and people last minute shopping for their christmas gifts.

    Thank You for reading everyone
    Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all

    Vicki