About me

My name is Jacquie Miller and I am a self-taught Natural History Watercolour Artist.
I live and work in the beautiful countryside of Northumberland. It is from here that I gain most of my inspiration for my artwork. This land is still largely untouched in parts and offers a rich and traditional view of Britain's natural world. 
 
I have always had a love and connection to nature. My childhood was spent playing in meadows where I can distinctly remember the sheer number of butterflies and bees. Sadly, since my childhood natural habitats across the UK, and globally, have been in decline. It is my hope that through my art I am able to bring awareness to the loss of such beauty and inspire changes to ensure nature's survival for future generations. As an artist I try to capture the beautiful and intricate patterns seen by the naked eye. I paint all of my specimens to scale, this means that the image painted is life size. This is often not the case as it is easier to include more detail in larger paintings and scale them down to size for prints. It takes a long time but I enjoy the challenge!
I have found the watercolour medium to be the most enjoyable when trying to replicate the depth of colours whilst maintaining the purity and simplicity of nature's design. I love the properties of watercolour that allow me to do this. However, one thing that concerned me when I first started painting was the use of animal products and parts in watercolours, paper and brushes. It was at this point that I decided to follow my vegetarian diet through to my work. I only use synthetic brushes, paper which is not sized with gelatine and colours that contain no animal ingredients. This means that all of my work is vegetarian friendly!  I also only paint from pictures I have taken myself or specimens that have died naturally and I by chance have come across them. I don't use any pinned specimens to create my paintings. 
Since trust is such an important element of any business you can learn more about the products I use and why I use them here