Rob Miller

I was born in Lancashire. For me, making a painting is like making a poem, it is both an expression of a feeling and an impression of a place; whether my focus is the light in a bright farm corner or the feeling of awe created in open spaces under stormy skies. I try to portray the sublime in nature, in many cases this is governed by the passage of light. Working outside makes this a direct experience. In the studio depending on the nuances of the paint, techniques and application of colour my work finishes somewhere along a continuum between abstractions and figurative, each brush mark a part of each painting's arpeggio of colour. I spend as much time as I can painting in Portugal and Spain. I like the international dimension that this brings into my work it creates emotional tensions and confronts my English traditions of style which I have to come to terms with in my own work. Last year I was invited to show my paintings of woodlands with Italian artists in Venice. This year I have an invite to return to Portugal for a similar event and to work en plein air. My work is in private collections in Britain, Europe and in the USA. I did an Art Diploma at Bolton University gaining a distinction in painting and then I started an MA course in the History of Art with the OU. The inspiration for my paintings, wherever I am comes from walking through the land. This provides me with a direct sense of place at a particular time of day or season; each brush mark or line, I borrow from nature, wrought from an observation like a note or a word in a stanza; even a short walk can result, if everything is right, in a whole body of work almost as a poem or a meditation.