Artist Spotlight : Lynne Millar

One of the first blogs I ever stumbled across was called Sugar City Journal, where two sisters-in-law shared sewing, craft and art projects that they were doing on opposite sides of the country. It was such a sweet and soulful and inspiring read for me. Since then, I’ve loved following one of the sisters, Lynne Millar’s career as an artist. Her work reminds me of one of my very favorite artists, Mary Cassatt. Lynne paints beautiful florals and the sweetest portraits.

Right after I had Margot, Lynne stopped by the house and took some photos of my big girls holding their brand new baby sister. A few weeks later this sweetest treasure of a painting arrived at my front door. Every time I walk past the painting in my entry hallway I get all the feels. I LOVE IT and I love remembering all those tender feelings we had at the special time for our family.

I just want my whole house to be covered in Lynne’s artwork. :) We put one of her florals in my mom’s kitchen and it’s the perfect little hit of color and texture!

Lynne shares snippets of her beautiful work and lovely home on her Instagram feed and has so kindly let us share more photos here. Her spaces are well-curated but completely real. Seeing these photos was a breath of fresh air for me and I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!

Lynne lives in central California with her husband and four kids. She says “I have spent most of my life chasing beauty creatively – exploring, in one way or another, how best to express and process my life experiences. When my kids were younger, I had a major design/sewing phase and spent a few years blogging with my dear sister-in-law on our extinct blog, Sugar City Journal. Now that my children are old enough to reliably not eat solvent and oil paints, I’m back to painting, which feels just right.”

Lynne wants her home to feel like a storybook. Organic, warm, curious, and happy are all words she used to describe her art and home and I think she totally nailed it! Her spaces feel playful, but still grown up.

Many of her walls are decorated with her own original art (if I was that talented I do the same!) but she has a few special original pieces from other artists sprinkled throughout. One of her favorite places to buy art is through Four Square Art. Lynne looks for pieces that evoke emotion. She collects drawings and oil sketches (which tend to be a bit more affordable!). Her favorite hashtag for finding new artists she loves is #doitfortheprocess – a beautiful feed to get lost in!

Lynne’s favorite books on her shelves are Jane Eyre and Crossing to Safety. She inherited/permanently borrowed many books from her mom and they are marked up with notes in the margins and are some of Lynne’s greatest treasures.

The night sky, the red butterfly, and the floral pen and ink drawing are all masterpieces of the Millar kids and are Lynne’s favorite pieces in the room. She says “I love how straightforward it is for kids to create. Their pieces always stay up because I think they reflect exactly how I want our house to feel.”

Lynne says she wants her home be a safe and inspiring landing place for her family- while still being able to stand up to a bit of chaos. She gravitates towards things that are natural, floral patterns, wood, books, and the color blue.

Lynne uses mostly oil and acrylic paints and she says her favorite part of the process is working to achieve specific, vivid color through layering.  Lynne says “I’ve painted, created, and taken art classes since I was a child, but was the kind of artist who did not often show my work to others until several years ago, when I made a decision to be brave (sharing something so personal as my art is terrifying for me) and to take myself seriously as an artist. Without a doubt, being a parent hugely influenced that choice. I want my children to develop themselves to their fullest, and find joy in who they are – so attempting to set an example doing that for myself helped me overcome some of my personal shyness and lack of confidence. I think it’s important for them to see how hard I’m working to achieve my artistic goals, and also, to see that I often fail, but I can put my head down and keep working.”

I love Lynne’s beautiful advice! It has been such a treat to sit in the (social media) audience as Lynne is finding her success! She is now teaching flower painting classes for Anthropologie events and her work is being sold on Minted and soon through Caitlin Wilson’s shop. She deserves every ounce of her successes and more!

Thanks for sharing your beautiful work and home with us, Lynne!

See Lynne’s work here. Buy Lynne’s work here.

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P.S. Artist Beth Allen’s home and art buying tips.