It’s a rare privilege to visit an artist’s studio. As art environments, they are the complete opposite end of the spectrum to the gallery space. Galleries are refined public places, designed for viewing the end results of a long process in temperature-controlled rooms.

 Studios on the other hand are mostly raw, private places where ideas and feelings are germinated and nurtured, but also wrestled with and killed off. 

Exhibitions can sometimes make the whole process look effortless because the artist puts forward only those things that came together well in the end, and obviously not those gut-wrenching works that ended up in the bin. Making art can be a difficult day-by-day process that often gets romanticised.

I’ve heard more than one artist describe the creative process as being similar to rolling rocks up hills. Making art is mostly hard work riddled with failure and rare moments of epiphany.

Studios are where all the material thinking takes place. Drawings done in the field may be laid out and looked at for hours. 

The artist works out which way to go based on hard won experience with pigmented substances. Over the years, experimental works can mount up, which the artist keeps tucked away in drawers for years as reminders. They are not intended for exhibition but are a lot like the working notes of an inventor. 

So it was an exciting moment when Miller reached into one of his many drawers stuffed with working drawings and pulled out this remarkable pastel study of rain approaching (with rain spots). In this drawing, Miller brilliantly integrates spontaneity and intensity.

 It has a combination of direct observation from life and a feeling for the subject. His ability to convey a great deal through minimal gesture is clear.

 The raindrops on the paper remind us that the artist was working outdoors in changing conditions and also signalled to him when it was time to stop.

 It’s one of those happy accidents that lends the drawing authenticity.

You can learn more about Miller’s process from the artist if you join a studio tour to Rockley, scheduled for Wednesday, August 12. A painting workshop with  Miller will also be held at the Gallery on Sunday August 23.