Alexander Millar is one of the most popular and collectable artists working today.
He is known for his thoughtful compositions and as he says “turning the ordinary into the extraordinary”. His paintings hang in galleries and private collections all over the world and he is continuing to gain critical acclaim for the works he produces.
David Lee art critic and editor of the Jackdaw magazine said:
“What is admirable about Alexander Millar’s paintings is that they are the product of reference and invention, as the best art should be, and they broadcast a real and touching sentiment. I recognize immediately their intimate truths. We who lived our formative years in a Britain, a materially poorer but spiritually prouder one, still affected by the aftermath of the Second World War, won’t forget it. We can’t because the image of those times is burned into our mind’s eye. The uniqueness of those city landscapes and horizons, dark and broken places hinted at in Millar’s work, has been largely erased from sight by boundless modernisation.”Millar’s childhood was spent growing up in the small mining community of Springside, situated between the two Scottish towns of Irvine and Kilmarnock.“
“Even though it was the 60s that I grew up in it felt more like the 40s,” comments Millar, “as the village seemed to be in some time warp stuck between the industrial revolution and Brig O Doon, and as with most wee places in Scotland, Springside had its fair share of “characters” most of whom I was related to in one way or another.”
Even as a child Millar was always fascinated by the small details he saw in everyday life. He would stand in awe at something as insignificant as an old man getting off a bike, a woman with bad hips struggling onto the bus, or the way a drunk would stand by the local pub negotiating a chip to land somewhere in the region of his mouth.”He describes it all as a street dance, produced for him only and made what seemed ordinary and mundane quite fascinating. “I guess that is the whole premise of the work that I produce in that I still take delight in turning the “ordinary” into something “extraordinary”.