Florida Times Union -- Westside Neighbor Wednesday, March 5, 1986
Some come south to sun, Steve Mills comes south to paint
By Lynn Skapyak-Daley
Neighbor special writer
Most Northerners come south each winter to relax. Steve Mills comes to Jacksonville because it is a good place for him to work.
Each summer he travels to his native island of Martha's Vineyard. where he snaps an estimated 800 photos of the locale, picks up commissioned work, then packs it all up and heads to his Confederate Point apartment here to paint.
Steve Mills spent his boyhood on Martha's Vineyard where his father, Thomas Mills, minister of minic of Avondale Methodist Ohurch, was music regional director. He entered Lowell University to study meteorology but quit school after a few months and began a job as a gardener on the island.
"One day I had the day off so I went to Menemsha harbor to draw. This guy asked me to draw his boat. I got $75 for three hours work, which was better than I was doing gardening, so I took it up full time," Mills said.
He later returned to Bridgewater State College where he was graduated magna cum laude in 1982.
Mills' describes his style as trompe l'oeil, neo-realism or photo realism.
"People have recognized in my works the influences of Andrew Wyeth, Norman Rockwell and Richard Estes, which is quite a nice compliment," he said. His unique perspective and use of color, though, gives his work his own personal integrity.
In the past two-and-a-half years, he has sold 125 paintings, 38 of these were commissions. In New England, he shows at the Granary Gallery, West Tisbury, Mass., which is owned by Brandon Wight and Bruce Blackwell.
At his first show during the summer of l983, he sold 33 out, of 35 of the paintings presented. Vineyard critics have reveled in his success.
Steve Mills described his technique, "I start with a precise detailed drawing then I apply the colors. I start with them and build up; being right handed, I work left to right. This makes the bottom right hand corner the last portion done," he said.
In his Upstairs work room, a converted bedroom with southern exposure, he had a partially completed canvas hanging on his easel. "This is a commissioned work of Vineyard Haven for Dorothy Goodman," he said. So far, he has worked 60 hours on it.
The work is so minutely perfect it makes the viewer bend closely to see the eye color of the woman shopper's face in front of Brinkman's General Store. The street scene makes even a non-islander long for the trauquility this village Main Street suggests.
Three other paintings hang in this room, a recently started surf scene, a winter sketch, all grays and blacks, and a partially completed condominium terraced portrait (he did this one for his Dallas show). Stacks of shutter box frames stand in one corner next to a double-primed portrait linen canvas waiting to be stretched. The canvas he uses allows him to achieve even greater detail in his works.
Looking around his work space he said, "Some of my paintings are done from imagination, some from location, some from projection. Look at the finished product. Can you tell me which is which?"
This past August, 26 of the 30 paintings shown at the Granary Gallery were sold almost immediately as the exhibition opened. Opera great Beverly SIlls bought a portrait of the island's Wesley House. He came back to Jacksonville with enough commissions to keep him working all winter.
Locally, several of his works are on view at Collector's Showcase in Avondale. More hang at Kaldi's on St. Johns Avenue. "Escuchando El Viento," - (Listening to the Wind)-is one of these. It is the painted picture of a sailboat heading into the sunlight.
"On the Vineyard, I came from being a nobody to finding my paintings hanging next to my idols. When I came to Jacksonville in 1982, I took a job as a waiter making below mini-mum wage. This was before my first show, the summer of 1983. My parents helped me that year."
Just recently he sold "Posted" to his patrons, Alcraft Company in Rhode Island, for $4,000. "They have bought 17 of my paintings. They hang throughout their entire main office building. Each year they (Max Dressler and Lou Sugarmen) fly into Tisbury for a half hour. They picked out eight last year and then they flew right back to Pawtucket. They really got me launched," he said.
His unit at the Heritage Apartments is right on the Cedar River. The view differs greatly from the Chilmark Marshland front yard he saw since childhood.
"I grew up where you cotild drink the spring water. Here, the water is great to look at but. .
The walls of his apartment home are covered with his works. Each of his paintings captures subtlety and beauty. His skies, sea or landscapes are painted through observant eyes - eyes that painstakingly catch every minute detail. Realism is the vital facet in all his works, yet his use of light intensifies and clarifies, making all his objects stand out and almost vibrate.
One painting, a pasture scene with strong, pure black and white cows, shows his careful handling of shadows. There is such clarity and precision, the viewer can feel the breeze blowing over the meadow.
"I look at my paintings as an extension of my photography. Out of 600 slides I take, maybe only 20 are used. He does about a painting a week, generally working from 1 to 5 each afternoon then again from 10 to 4 in the early mornuig. He averages six hours a day, six days a week. This short, solidly built, curly haired young man said, "I've been very lucky. I"ve been in the right place at the right times. Everyone on the Vineyard's buying Mills' work now. Here, well here, I work. I paint. So far, I haven't had my own show here. It's just where I can relly work."
He is currently showing through tomorrow in Miami. But, come August, he'll be back where he and his art began -- Martha's Vineyard.