Melanie Mills lives and works in her home studio, Karori, Wellington.
A self taught still-life painter, working mainly in oils, she is inspired by her personal environment. Every window of her home overlooks lush, overgrown and much loved gardens, where wildlife thrives. She finds joy in the pleasure of quiet meditation on these subjects. It is ever present in her work. She is a collector, a frequent op-shopper. As a result her studio is filled with the accoutrements of still life – jugs, urns, arrangements of flowers, foliage, weaving, fabrics and a sizeable library of art volumes, all providing constant inspiration.

Emigrating to New Zealand from England as a child, Melanie studied Art History at Auckland University and forged a career as a librarian. In 2008, when her role at Victoria University was disestablished, Mills sought a more creative outlet, firstly writing fiction and then jewellery-making. One day, studying an image by Winifred Nicholson, she was inspired to begin painting, ‘And that’s how I taught myself to paint, looking at a painting I loved, and nervously trying to put it together.’1 She attended numerous watercolour and printmaking courses but her only formal experience with oils was a summer school with Michael Shepherd in Whanganui.

Painting was initially a private pursuit, until spotted by Janet Bayly, director of Mahara Gallery, Waikanae, who offered her a solo exhibition in 2014. She has subsequently had numerous solo exhibitions in Auckland represented by FHE Galleries. In 2021 Mills turned to painting full time. This is her first exhibition with Bowen Galleries.

The title of the exhibition, These summer days, has been sourced from a line in Jenny Bornholdt’s poem, Jack’s Shirt, from Summer, THWUP 2003.

‘They are mostly summer subjects and many of the plants I found growing wild. I prefer ordinary overlooked uncultivated subjects that might be here without human intervention.’

1 Artist in conversation with Jill Trevelyan, 1 June 2017.