Ann Milch: Painting History

Very rarely in life do you get a chance to sit down with a 78 year old artist over coffee and talk about the things that matter – her travels, her watercolours, and her past. She showed us the journals that she kept while overseas, and every page was saturated with history. Here was someone who really believed in what she did; someone who appreciated art for art’s sake. We looked at her works and saw so much passion, that we just had to speak to her about it and find out more about her story.

Ann Milch’s talents are versatile and span across various creative mediums, including multimedia, oils, acrylics, watercolours. A prize-winning member of the Ku-rin-gai Art Society, many of her works have been published in the Australian Artist Magazine and she has held several exhibitions in Australia and overseas. She recalls that a highlight in her career was the major portrait commission for Sir David Martin, governor of NSW during 1989-1990. Though she has branched out from portraits now, focusing more on teaching classes and painting miniatures, she looks back fondly on these experiences and is glad she had the opportunity to experiment with different forms.

I remember thinking at the time I can die now having done something really worthwhile.

No doubt, art has always been a difficult path to break into as a profession. Constantly labelled as merely a hobby and significantly undervalued as a career, finding success in the arts is often met with much critique. Ann approaches this differently, saying that she views art as simply something she loves doing and something she has to do.

Her recently launched exhibition Retrospective celebrated the works that she had created throughout her amazing journey. Each painting and even frame had a story that she could tell us, giving further insight into her inspirations and creative process. We were lucky enough to get access to her travel journals, where the intricacies and detail that went into each page truly warmed our hearts.

To hear more about our exclusive interview with Ann, whose story and art continues to inspire us, check out our next issue on ECX!