Ian Millstone

Ian Millstone was born in Hackney, East London in 1957. At the age of 18 he entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, to study stage management and related skills. He then embarked on a stage management career around the country. As he had also trained to be a theatre technician he worked back stage in various theatres in the west end. These included the National Theatre, The London Palladium and three years at the Palace Theatre working on the production of Les Miserables. He then moved into set design, starting on small productions and culminating in productions of Faust, at the Young Vic Studio Theatre, and an opera at the Bloomsbury Theatre. Ian had been painting during his career in the theatre, and it was at this point he decided to concentrate on his art. He then went to study fine art at Goldsmiths College London.

Ian’s work tries to encompass his belief in the guiding influence of spirit on our lives, and his landscapes try to touch this aspect within us. His figurative work acknowledges souls who are lost and bewildered after experiencing great trauma and conflict in the physical realm, and who have difficulty moving on to the spiritual realm. He believes and hopes that the act of painting and looking by the viewer combine to move these souls to the light and release. These souls are Jews, Gypsies and others who suffered in the Holocaust. He believes that he is guided and helped by spirit when painting .