HEATHER
MILLER
BEYOND
I grew up in a city where my contact with nature was limited to
my noisy, rather wild garden which backed onto a railway line.
In my twenties, I tired of the greyness of city life and moved to
Hertfordshire. My new home was beside a river and every morning
I woke to hear the wonderful sound of the water tumbling over
the nearby weir. Quite a change from the unrelenting background
mumble of London traffic. I can still remember my astonishment when
a short walk transported me into a new green world of trees and
peace. It felt right, I felt grounded, I had come home. The beauty and
mystery that captivated me all those years ago in my adopted county
continues to do so and I strive to bring those qualities to my work.
The wonderful thing about Hertfordshire is the variety of the
landscape. Beautiful woods and forests often sit beside hilly meadows
and fields. Much of the land around where I live is farmed and the
changing seasons and natural colour palette are evidenced by the
rhythm of the planting, growing and harvesting of the crops.
I regularly walk in this terrain and it struck me that so much beauty is
overlooked. Not only is there appeal in the more traditional views and
vistas, but there is much to beguile within the undergrowth, foliage
and beyond. This realisation has developed into a fascination with
what others often seem to overlook. A leaf shape. The bough swaying
in the breeze. The line of a stem. The bark of a tree. Contrasts of
colour and shape. The action of peering through all of this into what
is beyond.
These days you are likely to find me sitting with my sketchbook and
camera in the undergrowth watching the filtering of light on the
forest floor. In this way, my work becomes like a meditation on the
intrigue and mystic qualities of the scene
Once back in the studio I take my sketches and observations and
paint. I am not trying to make a facsimile of what I have seen. Nature
itself and photographers are much more suited to that type of
representation. My aim is to create a reaction, an impression of what
I see. Consequently, my paintings have developed a semi-abstract
quality that somehow resonates with my reaction to the landscape.
I feel very privileged to live in such a beautiful county, one that has so
much natural charm and yet is close to some of the less agreeable but
practical aspects of modern life, such as access to transport links to
other parts of the country. All in all, I think residents of Hertfordshire
are very lucky indeed, we really do have the best of both worlds!
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