CCLPer Page 1

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4
Other Articles

         ISLAND
         IMAGES
CAPE COD LIFE MAGAZINE

Realist Steve Mills
Portrays Martha's Vineyard

Above: "Porch Swing", 20 x 16" oil on canvas
(1984). Mills rarely portays people in his work, but
his paintings evoke a feeling of human presence.

by Edward Feit
Steve Mills feels fortunate in hissuccess as an artist at the relatively young age of twenty seven.
     I sometimes get the feeling someone is watching over me and guiding me, he says, "so I cannot ever take full credit for anything I have done. I do appreciate my good fortune and am proud of my work, yet I know I have many faults and much to work out, both in my art and in myself."
     Each painting, for Steve, is a step toward becoming the artist he one day hopes to he. So, though he has sold all his work, and collectors are waiting in the wings for more, he gauges the success of a painting by what it has taught him.
     "I hope to improve until the day I stop painting," Steve remarks, "for what is the point of going on if one does not master something new.
     Although born in Boston in 1959, Steve is virtually an islander, for he spent his childhood on Martha's
Vineyard, first in Oak Bluffs, and later in Chilmark. Even after his family had moved to Walpole, Massachusetts, when Steve was in the seventh grade, they continued to spend their summers in Chilmark. Until the family's Chilmark house was sold two years ago, Steve could come and go as he pleased. He now stays on the Vineyard through the hospitality of his friends. Though now a 'summer resident,' with all that implies to real islanders, Steve still thinks of himself as something of a native.

"The Vineyard is a great place for an artist," he says,

92    February/March 1987

Page 1

Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4
Other Articles

ISLAND IMAGES CAPE COD LIFE MAGAZINE
Realist Steve Mills Portrays Martha's Vineyard
Above: "Porch Swing", 20 x 16" oil on canvas (1984). Mills rarely portays people in his work, but his paintings evoke a feeling of human presence.	by Edward Feit Steve Mills feels fortunate in hissuccess as an artist at the relatively young age of twenty seven. I sometimes get the feeling someone is watching over me and guiding me, he says, "so I cannot ever take full credit for anything I have done. I do appreciate my good fortune and am proud of my work, yet I know I have many faults and much to work out, both in my art and in myself." Each painting, for Steve, is a step toward becoming the artist he one day hopes to he. So, though he has sold all his work, and collectors are waiting in the wings for more, he gauges the success of a painting by what it has taught him. "I hope to improve until the day I stop painting," Steve remarks, "for what is the point of going on if one does not master something new. Although born in Boston in 1959, Steve is virtually an islander, for he spent his childhood on Martha's Vineyard, first in Oak Bluffs, and later in Chilmark. Even after his family had moved to Walpole, Massachusetts, when Steve was in the seventh grade, they continued to spend their summers in Chilmark. Until the family's Chilmark house was sold two years ago, Steve could come and go as he pleased. He now stays on the Vineyard through the hospitality of his friends. Though now a 'summer resident,' with all that implies to real islanders, Steve still thinks of himself as something of a native. "The Vineyard is a great place for an artist," he says,
92 February/March 1987