McMillan, Gillian
Item
Maker Name
McMillan, Gillian
Biography
English born Gillian McMillan relocated to Canada in 1967. After a year in Montreal, she moved to Vancouver, and by 1971 had settled in Port Moody. Her interest in ceramics started then. In 1971 she started taking credit classes with instructor Fred Owen, (who later became Kyber Dancer) held in Surrey at the Simon Cunningham Elementary School, part of the newly opened Douglas College (1970). She said that Fred Owen was an inspiring and thorough teacher teaching glaze calculation, disciplined throwing, ceramic history and raku. Fellow students were Judy Burke, Fran Hollinger, Jeannie Sarich, Laura Wee Lay Laq, Darrel Hancock and Rob Bush, the latter 3 went on to study at Emily Carr College.
After the birth of her sons, Gill returned to Douglas College in 1979 to the relocated campus at 140th Avenue in Surrey. In 1981 Douglas College split and the campus south of the Fraser River became Kwantlen College, now Kwantlen Polytechnic University. The campus in new Westminster remains Douglas College.
Gill was also involved in the founding of the Fraser Valley Potters Guild, still a large and thriving Guild, along with Fred Owen and Fran Hollinger who loaned her gas kiln. Don Hutchinson loaned his studio and property for early FVPG sales. The goal was always to pursue excellence in the work as well as provide a social time. Formative workshops or presentations were given by Walter Dexter, Bruce Cochrane, Josh de Weese, Joe Fafard, Ruthanne Tudball and many more. The FVPG has been fortunate in being closely connected with the college/now KPU and having the use of the Ceramics classroom for monthly meetings.
In the early 1980s Gill continued with classes at the Hughye School of Pottery. By 1994 she had earned her BFA at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.(Tam Irving and Sally Michener) She spent three years as an artist-in-residence in the Port Moody Arts Centre, helping to establish their clay programme.
In 2002 Eric Metcalfe, Western-Front visual and performance artist asked Gill to make large vessel forms, in the style of Greek Attic Pottery, essentially providing blank forms for Eric to paint for 'The Attic Project'. It required great skill to make the large forms, and started a conversation about collaboration and the differing values placed on craft, concept and painting, and which resulted in several articles. ( Gill has invited a a group of established painters including Eric Metcalfe, and others associated with the Western Front, to her studio to paint instead, with slip and glaze, and in her Rara Avis blogs refers to them as the 'Raiders'.)
Gill has taught at the Port Moody Arts Centre, Place des Arts, Coquitlam, and the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. Gill helped found both the Fraser Valley Potters Guild and Tri-City Potters. She served on the PGBC Board, and assisted with editing the newsletter, and is currently on the Board of the North-West Ceramics Foundation.
Gill is known for her excellent throwing, her command of colourful slipware, sgrafitto and for her beloved and winsome salt-fired and earthenware bird vessels or Jug-birds that have sold through the Gallery of BC Ceramics, Circle Craft Co-op, the Jonathon Bancroft-Snell Gallery in Ontario, and the Primavera Gallery in the UK.
Gillian has always been a community-builder and her frequent posts about the BC ceramic community through her Rara Avis blog keep everyone posted about current events.
After the birth of her sons, Gill returned to Douglas College in 1979 to the relocated campus at 140th Avenue in Surrey. In 1981 Douglas College split and the campus south of the Fraser River became Kwantlen College, now Kwantlen Polytechnic University. The campus in new Westminster remains Douglas College.
Gill was also involved in the founding of the Fraser Valley Potters Guild, still a large and thriving Guild, along with Fred Owen and Fran Hollinger who loaned her gas kiln. Don Hutchinson loaned his studio and property for early FVPG sales. The goal was always to pursue excellence in the work as well as provide a social time. Formative workshops or presentations were given by Walter Dexter, Bruce Cochrane, Josh de Weese, Joe Fafard, Ruthanne Tudball and many more. The FVPG has been fortunate in being closely connected with the college/now KPU and having the use of the Ceramics classroom for monthly meetings.
In the early 1980s Gill continued with classes at the Hughye School of Pottery. By 1994 she had earned her BFA at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.(Tam Irving and Sally Michener) She spent three years as an artist-in-residence in the Port Moody Arts Centre, helping to establish their clay programme.
In 2002 Eric Metcalfe, Western-Front visual and performance artist asked Gill to make large vessel forms, in the style of Greek Attic Pottery, essentially providing blank forms for Eric to paint for 'The Attic Project'. It required great skill to make the large forms, and started a conversation about collaboration and the differing values placed on craft, concept and painting, and which resulted in several articles. ( Gill has invited a a group of established painters including Eric Metcalfe, and others associated with the Western Front, to her studio to paint instead, with slip and glaze, and in her Rara Avis blogs refers to them as the 'Raiders'.)
Gill has taught at the Port Moody Arts Centre, Place des Arts, Coquitlam, and the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. Gill helped found both the Fraser Valley Potters Guild and Tri-City Potters. She served on the PGBC Board, and assisted with editing the newsletter, and is currently on the Board of the North-West Ceramics Foundation.
Gill is known for her excellent throwing, her command of colourful slipware, sgrafitto and for her beloved and winsome salt-fired and earthenware bird vessels or Jug-birds that have sold through the Gallery of BC Ceramics, Circle Craft Co-op, the Jonathon Bancroft-Snell Gallery in Ontario, and the Primavera Gallery in the UK.
Gillian has always been a community-builder and her frequent posts about the BC ceramic community through her Rara Avis blog keep everyone posted about current events.
First name
Gillian
Last name
McMillan
Career dates (start and end)
1970
Date of Birth
1943
Place of Birth
Dorset, England
Studio location
Formal Education
Major Exhibitions
2020 “Earth, Form, Fire” TriCity Potters, Port Moody Arts Centre, BC
2018 “Salt Spring Island Ceramics Awards 2018”
2008
“Contemporary Craft in British Columbia: Excellence within Diversity”, Vancouver Museum,
“Contemporary Craft in British Columbia: Excellence within Diversity”, Vancouver Museum,
2007 Circle Craft Co-op - solo Rara Avis
2006 Salt-glazed Jugbird in “Salzbrand: Keramik 2006”, Handwerkskammer Koblenz
2005 TransFormations, PGBC 50th Anniversary
2004 ‘Animal Sculptures & Paintings’, Candover Gallery, Alresford, Hampshire, England
2003 Ornithikos Gallery of BC Ceramics -
1995 World Tea Party, Presentation House, North Vancouver, ceramic collaboration with Eric Metcalfe.
1993 June Prize-winner, B.C. Potters Guild “Jugs” show, Canadian Craft Museum
Affiliated organizations
Personal Website
Tag
Links to Further Resources
Gillian McMillan’s Blog
https://rara-avis.design/blog
https://rara-avis.design/blog
https://thepotterscast.com/Episode37/
www.nwcf.ca
https://www.instagram.com/gillian.mcmillan/?hl=en
ps://www.primaveragallery.co.uk/pages/gillian-mcmillan
https://www.jonathons.ca
Awards'
2010 Circle Craft Scholarship to attend Medalta International Artist-in-Residence Program
2010 Circle Craft Scholarship to attend Medalta International Artist-in-Residence Program
Canada Council Travel Grant, March 2000
Publications
2006 Salzbrand: Keramik, Handwerkskammer Koblenz, catlogue
2004 Robin Hopper’s Making Marks: Discovering the Ceramic Surface
LARK BOOKS 2006 - PITCHERS
2006 - Animals
2006 - Animals
2004 Making Marks: Discovering the Ceramic Surface, Robin Hopper
2002 Eric Metcalfe, by Anna-Marie Larsen, in Border Crossings. May 2002 #82, pp 71 &72
2002 The Attic Project, by Gillian McMillan, in Artichoke. Special Edition #2, 2002, pp 8-13.
2000 Southern Alberta Art Gallery/Kamloops Art Gallery, catalogue
1998 Made of Clay, PGBC
Source
Debra E. Sloan
Linked resources
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