Daniel Miller
- Faculty
Biography
An idea to paint began for Daniel Miller during his school years. He was fortunate to meet sympathetic mentors at the Slade School of Art, whose rationalist convictions suited an age of materialism.
After graduating in 1981, Miller travelled across the USA, driven by an interest in the WAP Federal Arts Projects mural programme, which had provided employment for artists during the 1930s.
On returning to the UK, he joined a similar public scheme. After eighteen months of patronage, he left to develop his work independently.
Working from studios in London, Miller created paintings while taking temporary work as a studio assistant and sitter for other artists, and contributing to exhibitions. As painting became part of his family life, it entered a new dynamic within his practice.
In 2007, Miller published Subject to Paint, a book of drawings. In 2017, he moved his studio to Folkestone, where he continues to create new paintings.
On drawing
Painter Frank Auerbach was asked what qualification or experience a painter requires.
"Perhaps to fail their exams."
Drawing for me accompanies a search for the authentic mark. It can be rough, abbreviated, or shatteringly still, but for me it is never exactly perfect.
It would be great if all animators, filmmakers, and architects made great drawings. But the master of the single picture often struggles for far longer with an item of drawing than any of these professors before them, without ever arriving at a satisfactory conclusion – simply because they happen to like drawing.
