The artist, the child and the owls

This story was evoked by Guinea Pig Zero's blip yesterday so do have a look at that.
However the connection is tenuous, to say the least.

One autumn evening long ago an artist who had been sketching in the hills of the Welsh border found himself benighted in a remote valley with neither public nor private transport, and several miles from the nearest town. Owls were already hooting as he knocked on the door of an isolated cottage to ask if he might sleep in the barn. He was surprised to find it was not a peasant's home but the abode of a small, unconventional family with numerous books, pictures, unusual possessions and cats with imaginative names. He was invited to stay the night and after a evening of good food and interesting talk, the next morning he drew a portrait of the couple's little daughter in return for their hospitality. (They didn't like the drawing, feeling it wasn't a good likeness, and it was put away for many decades.)

The child grew up and in 2001, when browsing the internet, she - that is to say I, for she was me - idly googled the name of the artist, Adrian Beach, who had remained in Christmas card contact with my parents until they died but had long since disappeared from view. It seemed his paintings occasionally surfaced in auction rooms at very modest prices but there was no hard information on him. Nevertheless I left a brief enquiry on a genealogical notice board and 5 years later, out of the blue,  I received an email from an American academic based in Pittsburgh, whose family had known him well. His father had met Adrian Beach at school in England and had remained close friends, even inviting him to stay for long periods at the family home in California.

The academic, although himself a professor of classics, had artistic antecedents. His grandfather was in fact the very  Alec Miller who carved the owls at Brynmawr College in Pennsylvania.

Alec Miller was born in Glasgow in 1879, one of seven children; his father
was a cabinet maker and as a 'dissenter' held strictly to the Sabbath day
observances.
He left school aged 12 and was apprenticed for seven years to a Miss
Anstruther  who had a studio for teaching woodcarving.
He was a good student. In 1896 he became a student in evening art classes in Glasgow High School  and 'it was here that the young apprentice became the young artist'.
In 1898 Alec was promoted to journeyman status and was taken on a visit to
London for the first time and was introduced to the writings of Ruskin and
[William] Morris and both he and Mrs Mackay shared an interest in the writing of C.R. Ashbee and in 1902 he was introduced to Mr Ashbee and the [Socialist] Guild of
Handicrafts. The introduction led to an offer of work which he took up
shortly after the Guild left London and set up in Chipping Campden. It was
to be his home for 37 years, although the Guild ceased to exist after 1909.
The combination of Ashbee as designer in woodwork and Miller as carver
proved very successful and much sought after.
In 1910-11 on the recommendation of Ashbee Alec and his wife Eleanor
went to Pennsylvania, USA, where Alec fulfilled an important commission
for the cloister at Bryn Mawr College (40 carved stone gargoyles in all).
(Information taken from here.)
Eventually Alec Miller settled in California and reared his family there.

In 2006 I had occasion to visit Pittsburgh with Guinea Pig Zero and I contacted the professor who invited us to a meal and showed us the one painting he owns by Adrian Beach. He urged us to go and look at his grandfather's carvings at Bryn Mawr, which is very near to Philadelphia,  but we never managed to do that. So when I heard that GPZ was heading that way yesterday I reminded him about Alec Miller's 'gargoyles' and now they have been blipped. Hooray!
Another look at the owls.