John Samuel Coulson Mills (John Mills), painter and Illustrator, was born in Strathfield NSW on 12 September 1907. His father Samuel was an established journalist who also worked with Val Morgan, writing scrip to accompany cinema images. His mother Augusta was an actress. They divorced when John was seven. It was at this age that he expressed his unwavering desire to be an artist. Growing up in Bondi and the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, Mills gained admission on scholarship to the Sydney Technical College (later National Art School) at the age of 13. At the time he was the youngest in attendance.
At the age of 16 his father passed away and as an only child, his mother became financially dependent upon him. He began work as an artist in the advertising department of Metters and it was during his two years there that he designed the “kooka” logo, the distinctive kookaburra image which adorns the original Metters stoves. He would also go on to design the Mortein logo featuring the mosquito on the dog’s tail which accompanied the catchphrase: ‘when you’re on to a good thing, stick to it’. After leaving Metters, Mills began work as a freelance artist, illustrating fiction and advertisements for the publications of the day which included The Australian Women’s Weekly, The Bulletin, Woman’s Mirror, Australian Magazine (A.M.), Man Magazine and Rydges Business Journal.
It was also at this time he began attending classes at the Royal Art Society of NSW under the tutelage of Datillo Rubbo, Sydney Long and James R Jackson. As well as being on a scholarship for painting for two of his three years there, he was also awarded prizes for Composition of Subject (1st), Best Collection of Work (1st), Drawing from Life (2nd) and Still Life (2nd). In the evenings at the Royal Art Society he would hone his skills on the top floor of an old building on Pitt Street and by day he would put these skills to work to earn his living. His paintings were hung at exhibitions of the Royal Art Society as well as the NSW Society of Artists with both holding annual exhibitions at the Education Department Gallery in Bridge Street.
In 1938 he joined Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) on a permanent basis illustrating fiction and covers for The Australian Women’s Weekly. His colleagues at this time included John Santry, Bill Pidgeon (aka WEP), Carl Shreve, Thora Ungar, Virgil Reilly, Wynn Davies, Rene Dalgleish, Des Condon, Geoffrey Turton (aka Petrov) and George Finey. He was now a full-time artist working to deadlines and well known as a leading artist of Australia’s most popular magazine with over 600,000 copies sold every week.
By this time he was living in Mosman and commuting by ferry. On the ferry he enjoyed many conversations with fashion illustrator Agnes Mary Patricia O’Neill (Pat) who, due to the outbreak of war, had recently returned from London where she had attended the Slade School of Art and illustrated for several department stores, including Harrods. Prior to her travelling, Pat had studied at the Julian Ashton Art School and was a fashion illustrator for the catalogues and weekly papers of David Jones, Mark Foy’s, and Farmers. As two working artists with shared hopes for the future and in love, it wasn’t long before he proposed and they married in 1942 at Scots Kirk Presbyterian Church in Mosman. Pat was always a good critic of her husband’s work and despite his talent, declared that ‘no man can draw a woman’s clothes’.
Soon after having their first child, Ken in 1942, Mills put his experience as an amateur sailor to use and enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (Naval Auxiliary Patrol) [R.A.N.V.R. (N.A.P.)]. He sailed on the HMAS Zanana for Papua New Guinea to assist operations at Milne Bay. He was witness to air raids over Finschhafen and Goodenough Island, assisting in recovery efforts. In June 1944 he was promoted to Skipper (R.A.N.V.R) of HMAS Koorine based in Sydney Harbour.
As an unofficial war artist, Mills sketched and painted hundreds of pictures during his time in the Pacific. He also painted his experiences after his return while he was recovering from Malaria at the Concord Repatriation General Hospital. The culmination of this work was a solo exhibition of 101 pictures at Macquarie Galleries on Bligh Street on 16 August 1944. The exhibition was a sell-out and Mills donated the proceeds to the R.A.N. Relief Fund. One of these paintings titled Auxiliary Patrol to the Rescue featured on the cover of The Australian Women’s Weekly on 12 August 1944.
After the war, Mills returned as a full-time artist for ACP and he and Pat had two more daughters, Jane (b1945) and Jo (b1949). Principally illustrating for The Australian Women’s Weekly, Mills often used his children as subjects for his illustrations with all three regularly appearing in print. His son Ken features on the cover from 25 November 1950. His daughter Jane features on the cover from 22 October 1949. And his youngest daughter Jo features on the cover from 31 December 1949. Taking turns with Bill Pidgeon, John Santry and other leading artists, Mills had illustrated the cover of The Australian Women’s Weekly forty times by 1950. After this time, photography became the principal medium for covers but the demand for his work within the pages remained for the next twenty years. During his time with ACP he is estimated to have completed more than 5000 illustrations. Also a keen photographer, Mills developed many of his own photographs of sessions at home in front of the camera with his wife Pat, acting out dramatic scenes as reference material for his illustrations.
Although principally an illustrator, his watercolour landscapes were selected for the Wynne Prize on six occasions in the 1960s. After retiring from ACP in 1973, Mills continued to paint for leisure in both oils and watercolours with his paintings appearing in many regional and local exhibitions. After suffering a stroke in 1991, his urge to paint remained, using his left hand to paint watercolours from still life and of Mosman Bay. His determination to walk again and his resolute spirit is captured by his daughter Josonia Palaitis, whose painting of her father won the Doug Moran Portrait Prize in 1994. John Mills passed away peacefully with his wife Pat and his family by his side on 19 October 1993.
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2021
- Last updated:
- 2021
