Date: 1997
Dimensions: 94.5 × 95cm
Medium: Oil on linen
Collection: Niland Collection
Provenance: Purchased in 1997

Description:

Nick Miller was born in London in 1962 and studied Development Studies at the University of East Anglia before deciding to pursue his interest in art. Relocating to Ireland, he spent almost a decade in Dublin before moving to Kilmactranny, County Sligo, where he lived until his recent move to Rosses Point.

While much of Miller’s recent work has focused on the unruly hedgerows and rugged fields of Kilmactranny, he is also an accomplished portrait, figure and still life painter. In his encounters with each genre, Miller applies the same focused attention to capturing the atmosphere or mood of his subject. Inevitably, it is when the artist knows his subject well – be that a field or a figure – that this concentrated approach is most successful. Such paintings suggest the passage of time spent, not only in the physical laying on of paint, but also in developing a rapport between artist and subject.

The artist Barrie Cooke, who lives near Kilmactranny, is a close friend and helped Miller to acquire the truck he uses as a mobile studio. When he agreed to sit for this portrait, Cooke asked for a mirror to be set up so that he could watch the painting process.

Written by Riann Coulter