Gary Millard

"Don't let anyone discourage you, the artist, the creative mind, from fulfilling your ambitious dreams of expressing yourself thru art no matter how long it takes!"

I am a man that is content with his life and what I have accomplished. Painting to me is like the "icing on the cake" of my challenged existence.

If you asked me, "What would you like to do at this point in your life?" My answer would be "Paint as much as I can, whenever and wherever I can." I never want to stop learning and creating in this fascinating means of personal expression.

Being an avid photographer since childhood, painting was the obvious progression. I started out sketching portraits and small mammals in pencil. My taste for expressing myself continued with graphite and then pastels - I love the blending and softness that pastels create. Oil was the next medium of choice with acrylics not far behind.

Currently my personal preferences would include both acrylics and oils - depending on the subject and time available for completion. I enjoy plein- air with oils and studio painting with acrylics the most. For the portraits and figurative paintings I use oils. My painting style is towards realistic but not photo realistic, with plein-air being more loose and impressionistic, then the tighter studio paintings.

The picture on the right was my first and only landscape within a 20 year period. At that time in my life my only hobby was doing bodywork and painting on cars. I thought painting pictures would be a way to release stress from working 2 jobs.

This piece was an acrylic painting that was my first attempt at real painting. In 1983 I took a class at the local area technical college for "Beginning Artists". By the 3rd day, most students in the class were finishing up their first piece. Except me! I was still stressing out over basics like sky, trees, rocks and why only I would mix two colors and always get mud. The instructor came up to me and said "I hope you don`t do this for a living!" The whole class burst into laughter!!! And yet, more discouraging comments followed from the instructor. What was then the infancy stage of my painting career also became my last class in over 20 years! I finished the landscape at home and didn`t paint another landscape painting again until 2003. The moral of the story, "Don`t let anyone discourage you, the artist, the creative mind, from fulfilling your ambitious dreams of expressing yourself thru art no matter how long it takes!"

In January of 2003 I met Mr. James Hempel, one of Milwaukee's finest artists. Sometimes all it takes is someone like James to urge you to start painting again. Which is just what I did. For the next year and a half - one night a week, I painted in a classroom setting with a group of talented artists of widely varied skill levels while being instructed by James. In this short amount of time I became aware that I should not have given up so easily as I did over 20 years ago.

Since that time I have been fortunate to have had several workshops with Master Artists that have taken my drive and zest for painting to the next level. I am now living in that next level....today.

I have a 2nd home near Clintonville, Wisconsin. This home is situated on a chain of lakes called the "Clover Leaf Lakes". From this wonderful spot on the lakes and the nearby "Navarino Nature Center" I always have more ideas to paint then time. My experiences in this increditable Wisconsin outdoor stage, comes many of the paintings you see on this website. Many of my current pieces in process, are fine examples of this artists paradise as well.

I have been blessed to have two wonderful children from a previous marriage. And as a proud father will boast, I could not be more proud of them! I have a son Chad 27 years of age and a daughter Holly who is 22.

My wife Kelly and her sons Zachary and Jacob are also sharing Our lives together. Making time for painting is still a plan being redrawn every day, but with a passion as this...who doesn`t love a challenge!