About Gianna

Gianna Milani was originally born in South Africa and grew up in the picturesque town of Stellenbosch. 

She moved to Scotland in 2020 and currently lives on the Isle of Bute in West Scotland. 

She is inspired by the beauty of creation all around her and sees it as a privilege to try and capture some of that beauty in her paintings.

She has always had a creative flare and even though she didn't pursue a formal art qualification as a young person, she decided to develop her creativity by taking up weekly painting lessons in 1999.

Gianna has painted portraits, landscapes (realistic and more abstract), seascapes and township scenes. She is currently focusing on painting artworks inspired by beautiful Scottish scenery. She loves to show the wonder of light in her artworks and also makes use of interesting textures and colours. She works mainly in acrylics and uses brushes and painting knives on hardboard. 

She considers her style to be a work in progress and enjoys trying out new techniques in her artwork to portray what she sees.

Gianna has been involved in primary education for around 25 years and this journey has taken her to Cape Town, London and Kyiv in the Ukraine. After working in London for seven and a half years, she wanted to invest more time in her painting and decided to leave full
time teaching and return to South Africa.

During this period, she spent time developing her technique, ran an art club and also headed up an art centre for a charity organisation, where children from previously disadvantaged communities were able to attend weekly art lessons and discover and develop their creativity!

During this time, her paintings were mainly inspired by various South African scenes including South Africa's land and seascapes and beautiful people. 

Some of her paintings have been purchased by buyers abroad including Switzerland. France and Australia.

Walking in the Scottish countryside is food for her soul and she feels even more connected with a scenic setting when she has spent time recreating it on her canvas. Her desire is to capture the beauty that Scotland is and she is excited for the road ahead. 

Anne-Marie Pietersz-Powell MBE

My love for photography and the arts started at a very young age along with my love for the mountains, the Lochs and the sea.

I lived on the Cowal Peninsula in my late teens but eventually I left to reside on various foreign shores. 

After 30 years I have been afforded the opportunity to return and turn my life long passion for photography, writing and the visual arts into a new way of life.

Beauty can be found everywhere. In the midst of nature, in the most ordinary of objects, days, situations and even faces. I strive to capture that beauty, whether through the lens, with a brush or the written word.

Here at The Castle Gallery you will find a small selection of my photography.

I hope that you enjoy my work. 

Born in Manchester in 1939. At 14 he left school and got a job in a Manchester Advertising Agency as an office boy and then trained as a commercial artist, leaving in 1960 to do the obligatory National Service.

He has painted seriously since 1955 and turned professional in 1985. After a serious illness in 1978 he worked mainly in hospitals and schools painting murals for children, the elderly and patients with mental health problems. 

He has had almost 50 one-man exhibitions, involved in more than 60 group shows. 

"Thank you......to the pictures I have painted which have left me, I say thank you. You have played a part in my development. To the unsuccessful paintings that I destroyed, I offer my gratitude. You are the proof of my commitment to my challenge. To the present day artists around me, whatever your artistic tastes, I am grateful. You are sources of energy, you removed the blinkers that restricted my vision.

I thank the galleries and people that have shown faith and belief in me, you renew my passion. With experience I have come to see that we learn the most from what at first sight attracts us the least. To those whom I meet through my paintings and cards, even though you remain nameless, I am with you in spirit.