Painter and teacher was born in Greenfield, Yorkshire and educated at the Coalbrookdale Centre, Coalbrookdale, England, United Kingdom. In 1918 he went to work for ICI before moving to a nursery for health reasons in 1924.
In 1927 Mills migrated to Perth to work for the Wesley Home Mission. He decided he preferred teaching and enrolled at Teachers College Claremont, Western Australia. In 1934 he exhibited two watercolours Southern Cross and Paperbarks with the West Australian Society of Arts. After teaching at Albany, Katanning and York Mills was appointed art master at Perth Modern School in 1941 remaining until his death in 1957. Linocuts and watercolours were his preferred mediums and he also taught these at adult education classes at the University of Western Australia. His watercolours were described in 1944 as: “Highly pitched watercolours, which produce a rather lithographic effect, though they often seem to cry out for more tone variation.” He conducted a weekly art segment for local radio and exhibited Thompson’s Bay, Rottnest in the Claude Hotchin Art Prize in 1949. Mills was still exhibiting in 1956 when he submitted Hillside, Bridgetown for the West Australian Society of Arts exhibition the year before he died.
- Writers:
- Dr Dorothy Erickson
- Date written:
- 2010
- Last updated:
- 2011
