Harland Miller: XXX at York Art Gallery

Harland Miller - XXX

 
Harland Miller: XXX is currently on show at York Art Gallery until 31 August 2025.  Miller, born 1964, uses the form of book covers to present his paintings which combine a love of text and abstraction.  He presents single short words in a colourful, eye popping style that draws inspiration from illuminated medieval manuscripts and Pop Artists such as Ruscha and Rauschenburg.  These works are part of his "Letter Painting" series.

Harland Miller - Bi

Here Miller has been influenced by the yellow daffodils on the city walls and the white rose of Yorkshire...

Harland Miller - York

Whilst Miller's works are very striking I liked his smaller, less refined studies better...

Harland Miller - York

Harland Miller - Moon

Harland Miller - Mojo

There is only one painting using a 5 letter word. As Miller progressed through painting words with more letters he found creating these painting with 5 letters challenging.  The advantage of this word is that 3 of the letters are "E" so they can be nested within each other...

Harland Miller - Eerie

Some of Miller's work is so abstracted it's impossible to see the individual letters..

Harland Miller - Nude

You may remember Harland Miller's previous exhibition at York Art Gallery in 2020, just before it closed as a result of the Covid pandemic, which took a similar form and was especially humorous.  You can see such works in the gallery's permanent collection...

Harland Miller - Whitby The Self Catering Years

The inspiration of Miller's upbringing in 1970s Yorkshire is definitely coming through here.

Harland Miller - Scarborough Have Faith in Cod

See more of his previous exhibition here.

Definitely worth a visit. Go see!

Our house, in the middle of our street - is it Madness?

Our house, in the middle of our street

The answer is "No," it's not anything to do with the Madness song, but it is "Our house, in the middle of our street" - a stitched version for the York Embroiderers and Stitchers (YES) ARCHITEXTURE exhibition in June 2025 (more details here.)

Pattern Piece

I thought I'd just say a little about the making of "Our house". The construction was inspired by a friend's card, which was a flower that stood up on a base. I used this idea for the basic shape and made a paper pattern. I cut the base shape out of pelmet vilene. Then using fabric and Colour Catchers, which you put in with your washing to stop colours running into other clothes, I cut out the basic shapes of a simplified version of my house. I always save Colour Catchers as they come out of the wash all sorts of colours! These were then added to the base using Bondaweb, a double-sided iron-on adhesive web which is attached to a transfer paper.

Back & Front, Before & After Machine Stitching

The whole thing was then machine stitched to make sure none of the pieces came off. To emphasise the windows at the front, I added 2 strands of Anchor soft cotton which I couched down.  I also added some detail to the door to reflect the panelling and the door furniture.  Then to cover the edges of the front path, I added french knots and drizzle stitch for interest.

Window detail before and after couching and extra door detail

Path Edge Detail - French Knots & Drizzle Stitch

Our House - Layout

Finally I made a couple of chairs from the wires off sparkling wine corks and a table from a tin base and a bobbin to go at the back of the house and "Our house, in the middle of our street" was complete.

Back of the house with table and chairs

I did have to add a cardboard support up the middle as the pelmet vilene wasn't quite stiff enough to hold the house upright and added some velcro dots to hold it together.  The tree and the shrub were added, which made the piece more stable as well as reflecting some of the plants in my garden.  I think you'd recognise it as "Our house".

Do come along and see all the buildings that will form a central display at the YES ARCHITEXTURE exhibition.