about

James Milroy has been a prolific painter for over four decades. He grew up in Surrey, studied Fine Art at Brighton and later completed an MA in Fine Art & Media at Cheltenham. He lived in London throughout the 1980’s and then moved to Gloucestershire where he now works from a studio near Stroud. Alongside his own practice he worked as an art teacher for thirty years before retiring in 2016.

For many years James was known for painting complex crowd scenes full of people in contemporary situations. Comparisons were made with the work of L.S.Lowry prompting a major exhibition of 100 paintings at Salford Art Gallery in 2012. Following this the images were sold extensively as prints, greeting cards and jigsaw puzzles. His figurative paintings have also explored contemporary issues such as climate change and have been used in a number of political campaigns.

Recently James has been exploring more abstract themes. Inspired by the history of pattern (particularly celtic knotwork, Islamic geometry, Op Art and tartan) his work is now unapologetically revelling in the challenges and delights of surface decoration. He is currently developing a series of paintings on wood using foliage and leaves as motifs in dynamic sinuous patterns. And yes, it has been suggested that these paintings would make very nice fabrics or wallpaper.