Alisha Miller

Transit Art

Taking work directly to the public with enormous digital vinyl drawings that blur boundaries between advertising spaces and spaces for exhibiting art. Taking art beyond the confines of the gallery. Created and inspired through innovative and accessible engagement and consultation processes with people to explore everyday life, the landscape and the work environment.

These artworks are designed to be viewed large-scale, horizontally – click to expand the image and view it landscape on your device.

Lockdown Landscapes, 2020/2021

Digital drawings and painting in oil and acrylic. Emergency Support Fund, Arts Council England.

Lockdown Landscapes valued our key drivers to see the crisis from their perspective – quite literally experiencing their world, witnessing first hand the changes in the landscape, capturing the beauty and stillness of these empty vistas and the changing seasons, recording scenes that were not witnessed by us all from dash cams, personal photos and remote conversations with drivers from Ball Truckin.

Abstract painting of a river in dark blue and browns
A grey road runs through green and brown hills
Abstract art with brush strokes in greens and blues
Abstract painting of a road in dark blues
Abstract picture of a passage between to red rock cliffs

Marston Vale Line, 2018/2019

Digital print onto vinyl, wrapped around the UAT. Marston Vale Community Rail Partnership. Funded by London North Western Rail. Created for three class 230 renovated tube trains for the Marston Vale line situated between Bletchley and Bedford. 

Wildlife Whispers, Brickline Landscape & Secrets Sounds are three artworks that go beyond the obvious ‘tourist’ landscape, encouraging people to engage with their surroundings that capture the spirit and passion people feel for the line. This work brings the line’s unique features to life, reflecting personal and special memories gathered on route with passengers and staff.

Image split in three with abstract fields, an owl sat on a fence post in front of the sea and two people on bikes stood in a field next to a train
Wildlife Whispers.
Left shows peach sky with blue clouds and brown forefront, middle shows a runner passing a river and right is peach sky with blue clouds and a traintack with large pillars
Brickline.
Digital painting of a railway bridge against a blue sky with a white picket fencde at the front
Secret Sounds.
Image of train track with large pillars printed on a train door
Painting of a railway bridge and picket fence inside a train next to two seats
Image of an owl on a fence post on a train toilet door

Lincolnshire Loveliness, 2014/2015

Funded by Creative People and Places, Arts Council Engalnd. Commissioned by Transported.

Following the food chain from field to distribution, I worked with Farmers and British and European workers picking and packing products for Lincolnshire Field Products and FreshLinc. Using my mind map for visual communication I gathered information to visit suggested landmark sites and features and observed their working practices to inform the artwork.

Sugarbeet Sunset.
Linconshire Loveliness.
Spendid Spalding.
Broccoli Sunrise.
Large Skies.
Pumpkin Place.
A lorry with a painting on the side with a blue background and three fighter jets
RAF Holbeach. Photo by Electric Egg.

Whose Waste? 2008/2010

Individual Artist Award, Funded by Arts Council England, supported by Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council.

Working with Nuneaton and Bedworth households, Alisha explored whose responsibility is our waste, who it belongs to, what it looks like visually and statistically and learning new habits from each other for the future. Families, school children and the public became monitors and advisors which led to a series of artworks on dustbin lorries, a temporary public art event, a publication, billboard posters, a card game, screen printed handmade paper bags, labels, recycled sculptures and a market stall.

Colourful abstract collage of a family washing up and taking out the recycling
Abstract colourful collage of a woman doing the washing up and a youg boy holding a bin bag
Abstract flowers made from rubbish on green collage stalks with the words see your waste differently above

Transit Art 2000/2022

Vinyls on lorries. Winner: Year of The Artist Award, Arts Council England. Exhibition at The Transport Museum, Coventry.

I then moved onto to create Truckers Pin Ups, giant, sensitive, vinyl, line drawings of lorry drivers. As far as I know, I was the first female artist making artwork on trailers in the UK.

Creating images for the sides of trucks is an innovative and very exciting new way of creating new and artistic partnerships within the road, motorway and transport industries.


Transit Art 2 – 2002 Creative Ambition Award, Arts Council England

Truckers Pin Ups and Cross Country Trucking, Rowntree Haulage, Nuneaton.

Giant sensitive, line drawings of drivers and the working landscape made using reflective vinyl to be seen night or day.

Drawing of a man sat in a lorry cab
Man lying on a pallet taking a photo of a man stood in front of lorry with an illustration of a man on the side
Applying Lines.

Transit Art 1 – 2000 Year of The Artist Award, Arts Council England

Paint and reflective vinyl onto 18 tonne lorry curtain trailer, InTransit, Bubbenhall, Coventry -. Exhibition at The Transport Museum, Coventry.

I explored women’s working roles in male dominated environments using a haulage firm as my research and the sides of articulated lorry trailers as my canvas. This project was a reaction to a personal experience after I left art school and worked in ‘the real world’.As far as I know, I was the first female artist making artwork on trailers in the UK.