Colin’s work is born of his life at sea.
It is grounded in tradition but comes from his own experience. Naive and self taught, it is perhaps the closest thing to Folk Art that can exist in today’s world.
Using wool and simple stitches, the size and shape of his pictures dictated by the antique frames he has found, they fit within recognisable genres but are delightfully unique.

The son of a river pilot, Colin went to Hull Trinity House Navigation School from the age of twelve, then spent most of his life in the merchant and Royal Navies. In later life he became an antique dealer where he encountered historical items made by sailors, including traditional wool-work pictures of ships.
With no training in art Colin set himself initially to copy Victorian examples, his life on board had made him adept at using a needle.

He saw the images on 19th century pottery and prints. He became aware of Alfred Wallace, and Wallace’s feel for the sea and weather and disregard for correct perspective and scale.
Mostly he made pictures because he enjoyed the process. He was quite surprised when I first suggested we might want to have an exhibition of his work and very resistant to the idea he might be an artist.
Now fifteen years after our first meeting and exhibition Colin is collected all over the world, particularly on the east coast of America. Numerous books and magazines have featured his work and Sheringham museum has a piece that they hang alongside their John Craskes.
Craske, the Norfolk seaman who created wool-work pictures in the first half of the 20th century, is perhaps the artist Colin most closely resembles.

After the pandemic pushed most art exhibitions on line this will be the first chance for nearly six years to see a collection of Colin Millington’s work hung together.

Luke Scott