| Coleman Mills |
Fine Art:
Preferring the title "painter"over that of "artist", Wm. Coleman Mills' work is an exploration of mnemonics. In his own words, Mills is far more interested in "the memory of a place, with its' inherent inaccuracies and overlays of emotions, than a photographic recollection". An avid outdoorsman, Mills draws inspiration from hours spent in the broomsedge fields, pinoak forests, saltmarshes and grassflats of the American South. He combines the saturated colors and organic forms of this natural world with the regulating lines of his architectural education to create richly textured compositions deeply imbedded with memory and place. His paintings often catalog flyfishing excursions to the Florida Keys and barrier islands of the Gulf of Mexico. Mills' work has been exhibited at the State Museum of Alabama, in solo and group shows and is held in private and corporate collections throughout the United States.
Textile Collection:
Like many Alabama boys, life began for me the first time I boated a fish. It was a speckled trout in Mobile Bay; yellow mouth and spotted like tarnished silver. I grew up on the Bay and lived off its bounty; soft shells for breakfast, fried mullet and cheese grits for supper.
In college! returning to Fairhope on breaks from Auburn!I realized the coastal landscape
itself fed me as much as the life within it. I craved the the Bay. In homage, I suppose, I began painting them. My paintings and wraps reflect the broomsedge fields, pinoak forests, saltmarshes and grassflats of the American South. Silk-screened on lightweight cotton voile in North Carolina, the printed fabric returns to Fairhope for hand finishing where it is backed with iridescent silk chiffon. Each of the twelve hand-sewn scarves in the collection represents a different landscape painting. The pieces are designed "in the Southern climate, for the Southern climate" and can make the transition from beach cover-up to boardroom shawl. They are vernacular, indigenous and colloquial, much like a good Southern story.
A current resident of both Georgia & NY, Wm. Coleman Mills is educated as an architect. He has undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture from Auburn, Cornell and Harvard and has studied and trained under AIA Gold Medalists Samuel Mockbee and Michael Graves. Mills' formal training in oil painting came at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, where he earned his Master of Design Studies in Architectural History and Theory. He has lived, worked and studied on the East Coast, Europe and Mexico. He has a beautiful family, wife Alix and three growing children Georgia, Rosie and Gus!
POP gallery is pleased to represent Coleman Mills exclusively in Santa Fe, NM. Contact us directly for availability and commission opportunities at 505.820.0788. |
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