ABOUT
“Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Artists throughout history have chronicled the important issues of their time. The subjects I pursue are extremely personal to my identity and value systems as an environmentalist, yet they are also universal and reaching a critical tipping point for every individual regardless of ethnicity, gender, class or religion. To be true to my values I also extend this philosophy to include regularly donating funds raised from the sale of paintings to conservation and environmental organisations, ensuring that my art has a direct connection and a positive effect on the content it speaks about. The international language of art is an extraordinary agent for discourse around momentous and difficult topics such as climate change and biodiversity loss. Climate change, our impact on the environment, habitat loss and the current rapid rate of extinction are all issues which have devastating implications as the biggest challenges we face. Without the resolution of these overarching issues, we will not have the luxury to concern ourselves with others. As an industry and as individuals we must act urgently to reduce the impact on the environment of travel, shipping, materials and energy.” - CLAIRE MILNER
Read Claire Milner’s Environmental Responsibility Statement
BIOGRAPHY
Claire Milner is a British artist based in North Yorkshire. She studied her Foundation in Art and Design at Harrogate School of Art, and went on to Coventry Polytechnic, U.K. from which she graduated in Graphic Design and Typography. Before devoting her career to fine art, she worked as an illustrator in London, where she was commissioned by many large corporations and publishing companies. She illustrated portraits of British Chancellors Gordon Brown and Nigel Lawson for major publications, leading to further portrait commissions of politicians, Central European Bankers and company CEOs such as Sir Terry Leahy, Sir Martin Sorrell and Lord Browne. An African trip inspired the painting ‘Mother and Child’, a mixed media work which was exhibited in Cambridge and acquired by CamFed, an organization which helps fight poverty in Africa by educating and empowering girls, and who subsequently commissioned five similar artworks to form a series. In the early nineties Milner studied under the eminent international mosaic artist Elaine M Goodwin, founder of Tessellated Expression for the 21st Century (TE-21). This was to welcome a new departure for her work, whilst at the same time representing an organic evolution of her early paper collage illustrations.
Milner’s work is represented in London by NoonPowell Fine Art and online by Rise Art, a curated online platform which “champions the work of outstanding emerging and mid-career artists worldwide.” Work from the Anima Mundi Collection was selected by the organising committee to be exhibited on the world’s biggest stage in the Blue Zone of the SEC in Glasgow for the COP26 conference in November 2021 to illustrate species extinction & habitat loss. The work was displayed with Explorers Against Extinction art exhibit which was chosen as one of only fifteen exhibits out of thousands of initial applicants to be presented to the delegates. She was subsequently selected to exhibit in a curated exhibition on the theme of climate change, to coincide with COP27. Milner's work has been displayed in museum exhibitions in the UK including: Ripon Cathedral, York Minster, Corinium Museum, Canal Museum, Pontefract Museum, Museum in the Park, as well as installations in Harrods and Whiteley's.
Milner’s artworks are held in a number of private collections worldwide, including Blue Marilyn in the collection of Rihanna. The portrait has been widely featured by the global media, it has appeared on The Official Website of The Estate of Marilyn Monroe, and has been showcased by Swarovski. It was included in a special edition of Vogue Paris which was guest edited by Rihanna who featured the work in a profile of her favourite things. Milner's portrait of Amy Winehouse appeared in an exhibition curated by the Amy Winehouse Foundation to mark what would have been the late singer's 30th birthday. The artist’s semi abstract artwork representing under sea volcanoes and life in the ocean depths entitled Hydrothermal Vents is in the collection of Professor Iain Stewart, BBC Broadcaster and head of Department of Earth Sciences at Plymouth University.
Milner’s paintings have been widely featured in the global media (see press page) including the BBC, BLOUIN ARTINFO, Channel News Asia, Elle, Forbes, Huffington Post Arts, The Observer, Save Virunga, The Telegraph, The Times, Vogue Paris and Vogue India. An in-depth article entitled ‘Artist Claire Milner Addresses Climate Change, Mass Extinction and Pollution’ was featured in Musings Magazine which interviews thought-leaders and artists in the philanthropic and social impact space, published by Susan Rockefeller. Milner’s painting entitled ‘The Disappeared’ featured in The Observer alongside pioneering artist Judy Chicago’s Create Art for Earth campaign.
Claire Milner is an Active Member of the Gallery Climate Coalition, an Artist Member of the non-profit arts organisation ArtCan and a member of the Association of Illustrators.
CONSERVATION, PARTNERS AND AWARDS
Milner’s work has raised substantial funds for conservation and environmental organisations and has won awards for raising awareness of threats facing keystone species. Her paintings have been described as "metaphors of our time" in examining the effects of humans on each other and on other species and ecosystems. Milner recently collaborated with charity: water to raise funds for the organisation which is on a mission to end the global water crisis. She created an exclusive artwork which was exhibited at The Other Art Fair and sold to a private collector in the U.K. In 2021 Milner was selected to take part in Explorers Against Extinction Invitational Exhibition in Norwich Cathedral and at the Oxo Gallery, London. The primary aims being to raise awareness about the threats facing the world’s most iconic species and their habitats while also raising significant funds for nominated projects pivotal in the battle to protect them. Her work was subsequently auctioned and the sale contributed towards 21 For 21, a campaign to champion the work of 21 conservation projects from around the world throughout 2021, as follows: Project Seagrass, U.K. Giraffe Conservation Foundation, Niger, West Africa; Invictus K9, Southern Africa; African Pangolin Working Group, South Africa; African People & Wildlife, Tanzania; Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya; The Gorilla Organization, Rwanda, Uganda & DRC; Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme, Indian Ocean; Rekawa Turtle Watch, Sri Lanka; Manta Trust, Indian Ocean; The Mariamma Charitable Trust, Bandipur, India; ELIE, Cambodia; The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC), Sabah, Malaysian Borneo; Friends of the Koala, NSW, Australia; New Zealand Whale & Dolphin Trust; South Georgia Heritage Trust and British Antarctic Survey, Southern Ocean; RSPB, Birdlife International and South Georgia Heritage Trust, South Georgia; Onçafari, Brazil; Naveducando Foundation, Galapagos; TIDE Belize; and Arts For Animals, Southern Africa.
Logging the Leuser (Anima Mundi Collection) was chosen as a Friday Feature by David Shepherd Wildlife Art, home of Wildlife Artist of the Year and the same painting was also chosen in a curated collection for Earth Day 2021. Ocean Rainforest (Anthropocene Extinction Collection) featuring coral reefs and sea turtles won the Oceanic Global x Alpha'a Artivism Challenge, following which it was exhibited during Art Basel Miami (December 2017). The competition utilised the visual arts to raise awareness about six critical issues impacting our ocean. The judges included Susan Rockefeller, Dustin Yellin, Aaron Levi Garvey, Doumi Busturia, Alexandre Arrechea and Zaria Forman. Milner's painting entitled Symbiosis (Anthropocene Extinction Collection), a companion piece to Ocean Rainforest went on to be a 2018 1ST ARTSLANT Prize Showcase Winner. The artist's mixed media painting entitled The Unknown (Holocene Twilight Collection) commissioned by actress and animal activist Dame Virginia McKenna was auctioned in aid of the Born Free Foundation and sold to actress and activist Dame Joanna Lumley (November 2017). Milner's crystal mosaic portrait of an elephant-poaching victim Delicate And Mighty (True Value Collection) was sold to a collector in New York in aid of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi (2016). Burning Bright (True Value Collection) created with 32,000 Swarovski crystals representing ten times the number of tigers left in the wild, was exhibited at an exhibition in London’s Hotel Café Royal, curated by Christian Furr (2015). It was subsequently auctioned at The Savoy Hotel and sold to an art collector in Germany in aid of Save Wild Tigers, The Born Free Foundation and The Environmental Investigation Agency.
In May 2023 Milner was selected as one of fewer than ten artists worldwide for Active Membership of the Gallery Climate Coalition, along with several blue chip galleries, institutions and museums totalling almost 10% of GCC’s 800-strong global member base who have demonstrated that their organisation has implemented environmental sustainability best practice. Click for the artist’s Environmental Responsibility Statement.
STATEMENT
INVESTIGATE . TRANSLATE . CREATE
I work in collections which collate art, science, nature and which simultaneously represent my own identity and values. Environmental references such as climate change and mass extinction have been the central focus of my image making for many years and these issues have been instrumental in shaping my entire life. My works highlight the human connection to the natural world and the impact of human encroachment upon critical ecosystems and species. I use imagery from extensive research documenting the latest environmental news, combined with art historical tropes and themes from classical literature and mythology. These references are interwoven in the final works to form a blend of topical and historical narratives in a coalescence I describe as “Investigate. Translate. Create.” My latest paintings are at the intersection of abstraction and figuration and explore ideas surrounding the revealed, the hidden and the disappeared. In a world full of immediate image consumption, this work by contrast, has many layers and eludes immediate digestion, instead, inviting the act of slow-looking. It condenses ideas and memories, making references to a way of thinking, rather than depicting precise representational images. Signifying both chaos and order, densely layered compositions consist of many levels of meanings and discoveries to be made with subsequent viewings. On moving closer, figuration withdraws, leaving abstract shapes in a simultaneous left and right brain activation. The portrayal of animals’ interchanges between metaphoric and literal and continues a wide-ranging history of animal images in art. The impact of humanity is always implicit, even when the human figure is absent or plays a minor role in the composition. The paintings accentuate the uneasy juxtaposition of abundance and loss, contrasting commercial values with environmental ideals as determinants of worth. Art does not exist in a vacuum and now more than ever an artist’s role is to hold a mirror up to the issues of our time. In a conversation with art history, current topical issues and the viewer, the main content of this work is universal: life and death, giving equal value to paintings that are both aesthetically and environmentally significant.
INSPIRATION, MEDIUMS & TECHNIQUES
My inspiration comes from extensive research trips to Africa, South America, Asia and Australia for commissioned and personal bodies of work, and these travels continue to inform current collections. My subject matter and content act as a portal to explore a variety of mediums. I regularly sample, remix and combine art historical tropes and concepts with my eclectic personal collection of photographs documenting extensive travels and topical environmental issues.
My practice currently focuses on traditional painting techniques dating back to the Old Masters and beyond, with a contemporary twist. I mix all my own paints using Natural Earth Pigments, combined with a plant-based acrylic or walnut oil binder, certified non-toxic with no harm to the environment. Because of their undiluted purity, these paints have a time-tested durability of thousands of years dating back to cave paintings. They are archival, their pure pigments are the most permanent of all and are completely unaffected by UV rays. The pigment particles are larger and more irregular than synthetic pigments, which allows for more light to pass through them, creating a paint that has a higher refraction-vibrancy. These paints have a connection with nature and the earth beneath our feet.
Further techniques include digital and handmade paper collages, created with complex, semi-transparent layers which form the starting point for compositional ideas. Mixed media works often incorporate camouflaged paint skins with printed text and photographic imagery. Crystal methodologies which implement historical pointillist techniques evolved as a signifier of familial ties to Italy during research on the ancient art of mosaic, famous for animal depictions.
This positioning of mediums, vocabularies and genres combines cutting-edge digital techniques with older pictorial traditions in a fusion of high art, popular culture and topical themes.
SUSTAINABILITY
ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY STATEMENT
Climate change, ocean pollution, habitat loss and the current rapid rate of extinction have devastating implications as the biggest challenges we face. We must act with urgency to resolve these critical concerns, as our planet is fast approaching irreversible tipping points. Biodiversity forms the web of life that we depend on, it is essential to the healthy functioning of ecosystems around the world and is the result of 4.5 billion years of evolution. Over half of global GDP is dependent on nature, but nature is in crisis. The main driver of biodiversity loss is human activity and climate change is an increasingly important factor which depends on biodiversity as part of the solution, so the two are interlinked.
ARTIVISM
Art does not exist in a vacuum, and now more than ever it is the role of an artist to hold a mirror up to the critical issues of our time, using artwork as a vehicle for a larger purpose. The international language of art is an extraordinary agent for discourse around momentous and difficult topics such as climate change and biodiversity loss. As an industry and as individuals we must also act urgently to reduce the impact on the environment of travel, shipping, materials and energy.
I work in collections which represent my own identity and values, collating art, science and nature. Environmental references such as climate change and mass extinction have been the central focus of my image making for more than two decades and these subjects have also been instrumental in shaping my entire life. My work, which was chosen by the organising committee to be exhibited at COP26 to illustrate species extinction and habitat loss, highlights the human connection to the natural world and the simultaneous impact on critical ecosystems and species. To be true to my values I am committed to creating work that is both aesthetically and environmentally significant and I extend this philosophy to include regularly donating funds raised from the sale of paintings to climate, conservation and environmental organisations. In this capacity my auctioned paintings have raised substantial funds to enable on-the-ground projects around the world, ensuring that my art has a direct connection and a positive effect on the content it speaks about. For more detailed information see CONSERVATION, PARTNERS AND AWARDS.
See the Environmental Responsibility Statement in full.
CARBON REPORTS
ART COLLECTIONS
