Figurative and abstract sculptor working in various materials, mainly inspired by Greek mythology and the Creation. Miller was born in Simla, India, moving to England in 1947, where he was educated at the Nautical College, Pangbourne. Having rejected a career as a tea taster, from 1964–6 Miller worked his way around the world, including 10 months in the experimental surgery laboratory at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, Canada. “I decided to become a sculptor, under the stimulus of different cultures and art forms which I saw on my travels.” Lacking the opportunity to attend art school, between 1966–8, encouraged by his artist mother, Miller earned a living casting and selling garden statuary while he taught himself sculptural techniques and created enough works for a first solo show in Norwich, where he was based from 1969–76.
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Sir Charles Wheeler gave further encouragement. Miller began to exhibit in mixed shows, such as the RA Summer Exhibition from 1973, and had several one-man shows, including Lasson Gallery, 1975, and Kunsthandel Ina Broerse, Amsterdam, 1977. By now married, with his family Miller lived and sculpted on the island of Paros, Greece, 1976–84, in 1978 building his own house there. He held two solo exhibitions at British Council Gallery, Athens, 1979 and 1981. After returning to England in 1984 for his children’s education, Miller in 1992–3 created a studio and home at Cley-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, and completed many major commissions. These included bronze portrait of Launcelot Fleming, Bishop of Norwich, for Norwich Cathedral, 1993; life-size bronze, The Docker, Jersey Museum, Jersey, 1994; Arts Council-funded, life-size family group in Sicilian marble, Bedford Maternity & Paediatric Hospital, 1997; and a Millennium commission, abstract sculpture for Oakham School in Clipsham stone, 2001. Later solo shows included Gallery Bonneland, Odder, Denmark, 2000, and The Gallery in Cork Street, 2001.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
