One of George McMillan’s works

THE life’s work of an artist who painted the landscapes of Hampstead and West Hampstead has been donated to a community association for auction.

Nearly 500 paintings by the late George McMillan have been donated by his family to the Community Association of West Hampstead (CAWH).

Mr McMillan, who died in 2020, lived in Ingham Road.

His stepdaughter Laura Watts said this week: “He was a very anxious person underneath and I think painting was an absolute therapeutic necessity for him everyday.

“It was understood that if George was painting he was left alone, which I think he really appreciated. He would paint every afternoon, in the upstairs room which captured all the light.

“I felt really sad because going through the house, which took me years to clean, and going through his papers I found the most amazing collection of 70s recipes.

“He had spent some time in France and he was the original galloping gourmet. He could chef up a bourguignon and coq au vin with a bottle of wine. “He also had all these little DIY articles for every eventuality, the stuck lock, fixing the corner of the windowsill. It was a particular kind of attention to detail which is evident in his painting.”

George McMillan at work and, below, another one of his pieces

Born in County Fermanagh in 1936, Mr McMillan was the son of a stationmaster, also called George and his wife Meliora.

The eldest of three children, Mr McMillan wanted to be a boxer as a boy and trained at local clubs winning several cups.

Aged 16, he won a scholarship to the Belfast College of Art where he studied for one year before moving to London at 18.

There he took on a variety of casual jobs, including working as a porter at Paddington Station and a docker, while becoming a card-carrying Communist in the East End.

In 1960, he worked as stage manager at the Empire Theatre in Belfast, before returning to Belfast College of Art to complete his studies under artist Neil Shawcross.

He eventually settled in West Hampstead, where he taught at John Kelly Boys School.

In his spare time he became a familiar face in “all” the pubs of Hampstead, counting Profumo scandal model Christine Keeler and actor Diana Dors among drinking companions.

His brother, John Kerr McMillan said: “He was 12 years older than me and was a bit of a hero worship on my part.

He would always treat me to a Club bar or wake me up in the middle of the night and we’d go downstairs in our dressing gowns and have soup together.

“In Hampstead he liked the pub, loved a pub crawl. He’d go in for a bottle of pale ale and then would have another and by the time you know it he would have done 14 pubs. “He saw the details in buildings and streets when he would paint, but he was also very good at portraits. “He’d get a copy from someone famous in a magazine and copy it.”

A Life in Brushstrokes: The George McMillan Collection will officially launch on Friday (tomorrow) from 7pm to 10pm. Tickets cost £6. The exhibition continues on Saturday from 10am to 4pm, with free entry. Most paintings will be priced between £10 and £100 with all the proceeds going to the community association.