Sometimes a work of art stops the gliding eye , stops it as surely as if a brake has been applied . It ’ s an automatic response to beauty , a focusing of the attention . Perhaps it ’ s the artist ’ s thoughtful rendition of light and color or use of texture that arrests the senses . Maybe it is the nostalgia evoked by the piece . Certainly , that is the case with James Milner ’ s artwork . He is not only an artist , but a nostalgist as well . Rust is his thing .
His subjects are varied , but he seems to have a predilection for classic cars and antique tractors . His scenes are rural and rusty . In one piece , a watery-blue 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne two-door sits beneath a leafless oak sprawling to cover both the car and a small shed . A tire swing hangs from a sturdy limb and the upright of an old clothesline peaks out from background fog . The Chevy bears a lovely rust patina that speaks to years of disuse without diminishing the beauty of the thing ’ s iconic horizontal fins ( kinda like bat wings ) and body style . It ’ s still a vehicle for beauty .
Milner , 49 , paints what he knows .
“ That tree and that little building behind it is the cellar out here at the house ,” he explained . “ As a kid I had a treehouse — my grandmother had a four-door Biscayne . Now , I did a two-door because two-doors seem to be more popular with people . But a Biscayne and an old Cadillac sat out there under that tree , and that ’ s what we played in . That ’ s why I did that picture . It ’ s from my childhood ; a lot of what I paint and draw are things that I remember as a child growing up . I stayed with my grandparents a lot .”
On the old farm up towards the Red River between Vernon and Lockett , Milner drove tractors , plowed fields , helped with the wheat and cotton crops . ( The old steelwheeled tractors he paints he refers to as “ dinosaurs ,” and says “ finding one is almost like finding a fossil .”)
“ Yeah , I ’ m a country kid at heart and always have been , but I went to Richardson High School , so I also know the big city ,” he said . “ I can ’ t stand traffic anymore ! It felt like the city was closing in on me .”
For the past six months Milner has split his time between the farm ( in the family for five generations ) and Trophy Club where his fiancé lives — one week here , one week there . The week here ( DFW area ) he paints cars . The cars he paints up on the farm are on 140-pound cold press watercolor paper or rustic wood fencing , or maybe on an old plow disc .
Most of his life Milner found artistic release through drawing in pen and ink .
“ I didn ’ t pick up a brush until about 2000 ,” he said , “ and I didn ’ t really start painting heavily until a little over a year ago . I lost my father in February of 2016 and about a week later lost Jerry Anderson there in Weatherford , who was sort of my surrogate father . I worked for Mr . Anderson on his place , Andy ’ s Acres , right off Lambert Road .” Milner lived in Weatherford from 2000 to 2004 . Losing two key figures in his life … well , it was a tough time .
“ I guess about three weeks after they passed , my fian-
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