Artist John Miller is an iconic painter of the Cornish landscape. During his forty year career John’s idyllic beach scenes of Cornwall’s Penwith peninsula and the Isles of Scilly established him as one of the county’s most popular painters. Working from his studio at the now famous Beach House at Lelant with its magnificent views across the Hayle estuary to Godrevy Lighthouse, John painted his distinctive images of glowing beach and deep blue sky, which are so widely recognised as to have become synonymous with the county of Cornwall itself. His purity of composition and colour have had a significant influence on the form and feel of contemporary Cornish art, reflected today in the current trend for square canvases, low set horizons and luminous pigments. In 2012 New Craftsman Gallery St Ives presented a celebratory exhibition of John’s work to mark ten years since the artist’s death in 2002. The gallery, with the kind permission of John’s partner Michael Truscott, continues to exhibit some of the wealth of artwork that remains in John’s studio, a uniquely important legacy of powerfully beautiful paintings and sketches.
