Wm. Coleman Mills
Channel Peanut Field by Wm. Coleman Mills
Artist Statement
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 hunting and flyfishing excursions throughout the Southeast, Florida Keys and Gulf Coast barrier islands.
Biography
A native of Fairhope, 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 and returned home to Alabama six years ago. He now lives in Fairhope, with his wife Alix and three young children Georgia, Rosie and Gus. 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 Southeast.
