Copyright © 2010 Alan Miles, Whanganui, New Zealand.
At high school, I was streamed in a “professional” class, and was quite discouraged by the attitude of one of my art teachers, who gave me the impression that I was hopeless at art. (Perhaps this was more to do with my attitude?) Some years later, I became friends with Wayne Tindall, a professional artist and fine arts student who painted landscapes to support himself through the degree in Fine Arts at Canterbury University. I watched him working for hours and felt quite inspired, but as I was a student at the School of Engineering, I didn’t start painting then. A couple of years later, when I started painting in oils from other people’s photographs, I was quite encouraged by the outcome, as my second such effort was immediately taken by a family member, framed and hung on their lounge wall, where it has stayed for the last 30 years or so. It was a landscape, as have been most of my paintings.
At about the same time, I painted a series of 10 or 12 paintings of similar or better quality. I showed them to a gallery in Upper Hutt, and was invited to paint a few more and submit them for an exhibition. Shortly after this, all my paintings were destroyed by a house fire. I didn’t paint again for about 12 years. When I did, it was to attend a weekly workshop run by another professional artist, Wayne Sinclair, in Hamilton. I feel that it was his tutoring that gave me the extra skills and technique I needed to be far more capable of getting the results that I wanted, and this also has given me a lot more confidence.
Due to the pressure of life in general and business in particular, I didn’t continue with this for another 14 years, until 2002, when I started painting again, and have been very pleased with the results. At times I have tended to get too bogged down with detail, and felt that I would like to gain a more impressionist style. Over the last couple of years I studied quite a few books from the library to get some ideas. Since then I have experimented a great deal by doing what I call "colour sketches", and more recently have felt that I have been able to attain a much more spontaneous style, which is enhanced when I "force" myself to complete a painting in a single session.
To see more art from Wanganui artists, visit http://www.wanganuiart.co.nz.
Feel free to make contact with me: alan@alanmiles.co.nz