Tresco 

John Miller made this painting with oil paint on canvas, likely sometime in the latter half of the 20th century. Miller’s approach to painting the landscape is defined by a thick, opaque surface and the way he models the scene with blocks of color. Look closely and you can see how the granular texture of the canvas influences the paint’s appearance, lending a slightly chalky, matte quality to the overall surface. The way Miller has worked the paint into the weave, suggests an interest in the material properties of his medium. The painting has been built up with layers of thin applications, rather than thick impasto. This results in a subtle surface. These decisions were likely made for both aesthetic and practical reasons. Perhaps he aimed to capture the ethereal quality of the island's light, using the paint's inherent qualities to convey a sense of luminosity. Whether these were deliberate choices or simply a result of Miller's working method, they speak to the importance of materiality and process in understanding his art.