Shirley Miller

Shirley Miller was born in Brisbane, Australia. Her training as an artist began at the Central Technical College Art School, Brisbane. She then served an apprenticeship as a graphic artist.

She worked as a freelance graphic artist for a number of years, finding the time to take private lessons from well known artist Margaret Cilento. Later, Shirley studied printmaking at Morley College, London and continued this investigation at Kelvin Grove College upon returning to Australia.

Later when family obligations permitted. Shirley attended Art Council workshops with quite a few prominent Australian Artists: John Olsen, David Rose, Andrew Sibley, Mervyn Moriarty, David Paulson and Roy Churcher.

Shirley’s main medium is gouache (an opaque watercolor, used on French handmade paper), but she also paints in acrylic or oil paint on canvas. Her subjects focus on found objects, many times unrelated. These works concentrate on the beauty inherent in wet or dry twisted leaves or feather dropped from native birds. The artworks are intended to create a meditative, thoughtful. calming response from the viewer rather than an intellectual struggle to understand the collection.

The environment, natural and urban, presents Shirley Miller with infinite material for her art. 'To convey the mood, not the representation of place' is the essence of her aims.

Shirley was a founding member of the 'Wednesday Group' in Brisbane.

She has been exibiting regularly since 1975 and her work is held in private, public and corporate collections throughout the country, including the National Gallery, Canberra, the Queensland Art Gallery, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and the Territory Museum and Art Gallery in Darwin.