‘Gadgie’ Artist Alexander Millar to retire his Newcastle Gallery

National World - LocalTV

Best known for his “Gadgie’ illustrations, Alexander Millar will close his Gallery located on Grey’s Street as he embarks retirement and his own lifestyle as a self proclaimed Gadgie.

Transcript

00:00Well, I've got to the age where I'm retiring. I'm 65 this year and it feels like, you know,

00:10one minute you're five years old and in a hot second you're 65 and it's like where did

00:16that time go? So, and it's hard because you spend the first or the later part of your

00:24teenage years, in the early part of your twenties, like trying to run away from the lifestyle

00:32your mum and dad had. And then you come full circle and it's like, hang on, that lifestyle

00:37wasn't so bad, you know, so I think now it's time to just kind of wind down a wee bit.

00:45Alexander Miller's art is some of the most loved and most recognisable work of any British

00:50artist. Well known for his gadgets, Miller's magnificent portrayal of the everyday is inspired

00:56by the working class men and women of post-industrial cities, especially Newcastle. Though Alexander

01:02is from Scotland, he admires the North East.

01:06I've been in Newcastle for about 45 years now altogether. Originally I was born in Kilmarnock

01:10in Scotland, but Newcastle's my second, well, it's my adopted home. I feel like an adopted

01:17Geordie, you know, so when I go back up home to see my friends, they all say, God, you

01:22sound like a Geordie and I always wind them up, I always say, I don't know what you're

01:26talking about like, you know. Newcastle's a great place. I've made so many friends here.

01:34I love the people. The people are great. They're very friendly. And when I do my sketches,

01:43I usually go in cafes and sit and sketch in cafes and people will always come up and

01:48see what I'm doing. And sometimes they recognise who I am and what I do. And they tell us their

01:55life stories. And while they're telling me stories, I see pictures. So I get loads of

02:02ideas from people that come up and chat. But Newcastle, it's a lovely place. And it'll

02:10always be a lovely place. And that's because of the people that live in it.

02:13Miller's art gadgie pieces are well known here in the North East, with the term gadgie being

02:17Geordie slang for old man. While Miller creates them as a portrayal of his relationship to his

02:22father, who was Scottish, anyone from any region can connect to these wholesome pieces that capture

02:28the innocence of a father-son relationship. He's made many pieces, including his interpretation of

02:34his mother too. One particular piece he calls hands full, and captioned it, with a daily walk

02:41to the shops, endless household chores, and kids to bring up, my mother's generation of women

02:46were working mums, long before the term ever existed.

02:50It's funny, my mum used to say, why don't you get a proper job? And a proper job's less taxing,

02:59you know.

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