[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

McMILLAN, Stephen [born 1949]

“East of Orcas”

2011

etching and aquatint / 11.6 inches by 8.6 inches

West Coast artist Stephen McMillan’s interest in the landscape grew from his early years in Berkeley, CA and a home with a view of San Francisco Bay. The Warnock Gallery, one of his dealers, has this to say about his education:

[McMillan] studied art at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and also one year at Hornsey College of Art in London, England, where he concentrated on sculpture. It was at Santa Cruz, in 1969, that Steve was first introduced to etching. Since receiving his BFA from UCSC in 1975, he has focused on creating aquatint etchings of landscapes, drawn freehand from photographs he takes.

From 1975 to 1979 he worked at Graphic Arts Workshop in San Francisco. For most of the years from 1979 to 1992 he was an artist in residence at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, where he taught classes in printmaking, and wrote three technical articles about aquatint etching. In 1992 he moved to Petaluma, California, and set up a printmaking studio in his home. In 2006 he moved north to set up a new studio in Bellingham, Washington.

Orcas is one of the San Juan Islands in the Straits of Juan de Fuca, between Washington State and Vancouver Island.