<p>The son of James and Margaret McMillan, and the youngest member of a family of three, William Allan McMillan was born in 1959 in the Ayrshire mining town of Cumnock. He was educated at Cumnock Academy before going on to study Fine Art-Drawing and Painting at Glasgow School of Art (1977-1981). Gaining a post graduate degree in 1982, he mainly worked as a teacher of art in Ayrshire secondary schools and was also the tutor of a Community Art Group for 20 years. Allan has exhibited his paintings with various groups over the years in Edinburgh; Glasgow; Inveraray; Kilmarnock; Troon; Ayr; Cumnock; Auchinleck and Girvan. Allan is an artist, poet and musician who now lives in the old weaving village of Crosshill in Carrick, South Ayrshire with his wife Mhairi.</p><p>Allan is an award-winning poet, who won the Robin Whyte Memorial Prize for creative writing in 2019. His poetry is mainly inspired by his walking and sketching activities; familiar landscapes; the natural world; the changing seasons and the variety of moods reflected by our human condition.</p><p>Allan has previously published two books of poetry: ‘Stars and Fireflies (2018) and ‘A Sunfall of Rainshine’ (2020). For the first time ‘Drawings and Poems’ (2023) brings together a group of over 50 studies in pen and ink with a selection of his recent poetry.</p>
