Jack Miller
Jack Miller
In the late 1970's when the Tulsa Audubon Society was raising funds to purchase property for an eagle sanctuary on Lake Keystone, Jack Miller, a well-known artist from Sand Springs, donated prints of his painting of an eagle in flight to help in the fundraising efforts. Thanks in part to the publicity and money generated by this donation, the Society was able to acquire the property.
A Tulsa native, Miller began working as a professional artist in 1950 when he entered the U.S. Air Force. During his 2 1/2 years of active duty and five years in the reserves, Miller worked as an illustrator. Many of his artworks were included in "Air Force Times" and one of his etchings of a Model-T Ford was displayed in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
Miller began his art studies at Oklahoma State University after graduating from Webster High School in Tulsa. He left school to enter the service and then returned to complete his bachelor's degree in art with a minor in advertising in 1953. He worked as a television artist and in advertising before joining Public Service Co. of Oklahoma where he was employed for 25 years. He retired from PSO in 1985. At PSO, Miller did architectural drawings of power plants, substations and office interiors as well as worked in the company's publications and advertising departments.
In October 1983, Miller's oil painting "God Shed His Grace on Thee" was featured in "Southwestern Art" magazine's annual collectors edition. His eagle painting was used on the covers of telephone directories in Oklahoma, and his works have been displayed throughout the U.S., as well as overseas in South America, Russia, and France.
After Miller's death in 1996, his son, Jack Miller, Jr., generously donated these prints of the Bald Eagles and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, done by his father, to the Tulsa Audubon Society.
Artist’s Work Shown Here and Abroad
from the Sand Springs Leader, April 14, 1985
By BEVERLY MOORE, LEADER staff writer
Jack F. Miller of Sand Springs is realizing an artist’s dream this week because five of his works are featured in an exhibition of contemporary American and French artists in Paris.
But, local residents won't have to go to Paris to see one of Miller's paintings. All they will have to do soon is pick up their phone books.
Southwestern Directory Co. will distribute about 17,000 telephone books to Sand Springs, Mannford, Prue and Keystone in the last week of April with a Cover that features Miller’s painting of a North American bald eagle flying over the Lake Keystone shoreline.
Already 46,000 phone books have been distributed this month with Miller's eagle on the cover. The first book released with the cover was in Garvin County which includes Paul's Valley. The second was delivered last week in the "Mustang-Yukon areas near Oklahoma City. The bald-eagle painting was commissioned by the National Audubon Society’s Tulsa Chapter, and the sale of prints from the original helped raise more than $100,000 for the purchase of nesting land for eagles on Lake Keystone.
"A man I worked with at Public Service Co. of Oklahoma had seen the Scissor-tailed Flycatchers that I had done and mentioned the Audubon Society was trying to purchase the eagle roost. The roost was on a piece of land that was going to be developed. So, I went up there with members of the Audubon Society and came up with the idea."
One of Miller's eagle prints ended up in a St. Louis art gallery and caught the attention of Anheuser-Busch Inc, The firm subsequently bought 100 prints and included one of them in its prestigious Clydesdale Collection.
"Most people think of Clydesdales when they think of Anheuser Busch, but they also use the eagle and had been looking for a particular type of eagle for some time," Miller said. "I was honored when they chose mine."
The eagle was displayed at the Main Frame Shoppe of Sand Springs when it caught the attention of Charles Dickerson, Southwestern Directory Co. sales manager.
Dickerson said frame shop owner Pat LeMaster suggested using the eagle print for a phone book cover.
The eagle, which has brought attention to Miller's works, is not included in the Paris exhibition, which will last through April 25 and include two other paintings and three portraits by Miller.
“The portraits are three different views of one person in a western hat. Cindy Grinder of Sand Springs was the model. I enjoy doing portraits because I like working with people," Miller said. "Pencil portraits of people are my favorite. I've probably done 200 portraits or more."
One of the paintings exhibited in Paris is of the sunrise coming through trees with an eagle in the foreground which has just swept across a pond to pick up a fish. The other is of two Indian women, one with a baby, sitting and talking.
"I have priced all of them so it, is possible they will be sold in the show," Miller said. "I would love to do prints of the two paintings because I believe they are marketable."
In October 1983, Miller's oil painting "God Shed His Grace on Thee" was featured in "South western Art" magazine's annual collectors edition. He has marketed prints of that painting as well as the eagle, he said.
A Tulsa native, Miller said he has been an artist most of his life, and began working as a professional artist in 1950 when he entered the U.S. Air Force. During his 2 1/2 years of active duty and five years in the reserves, Miller worked as an illustrator. Many of his artworks were included in "Air Force Times” and one of his etchings of a Model-T Ford is displayed in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Miller began his art studies at Oklahoma State University after graduating from Webster High School in Tulsa. He left school to enter the service and then returned to complete his bachelor's degree in art with a minor in advertising in 1953.
He worked as a television artist and in advertising before joining Public Service Co. of Oklahoma where he was employed for 25 years. He retired from PSO in August.
At PSO, Miller did architectural drawings of power plants, substations and office interiors as well as worked in the company's publications and advertising departments.
Miller is now devoting full-time to his art and is presently working on a series of three western paintings, he said.
