Lillian Wells, Sunday Morning After Church, Deland. Oil on canvas, 14 by 20 inches.
Lillian Wells was born in Luxora, Arkansas in 1895 and moved with her family to DeLand in 1911. As a child it was evident that she loved music and had ability in drawing. Lillian entered Stetson University’s undergraduate Academy in 1912, and graduated in Pianoforte in 1915. She continued on at the school, singing with Stetson’s Vesper’s Choir; serving as secretary of her junior class; and art editor of the School yearbook, Oshihiyi. The 1917 and 1918 editions of Oshihiyi are full of her humorous cartoons. Miss Wells, as she was later known in DeLand, was head of the music department at the local Y.W.C.A. In 1918 Wells graduated with an A.B. from Stetson’s School of Music. She spent some time in New York City, possibly at the Art Students League, before returning to DeLand as one of the first professional artists in Volusia County; teaching art, voice and piano in her home for the next fifty years.
One of her first exhibits was noted by the DeLand Sun News, December 22, 1932, “Wide spread interest in painting has been brought to light by the local display of art held by DeLand and guest artists, not in an austere gallery, but in a local store on West Indiana Avenue, in the heart of the city… Much interest has been shown in…the scenes of familiar places as executed by Miss Allen (Anna Allen), Mrs. Lawrence Stockwell, (Catherine Stockwell), Mrs. R. A. Worstall and Miss Lillian Wells.” In 1933 Wells was director of the DeLand Singing Ensemble.
The Orlando Sunday Sentinel February 18, 1933, reporting on the Central Florida Exposition noted, “Miss Wells, one of the honorary exhibitors this year, represents Volusia County as its foremost young native artist. She has studied both in Florida and New York City and has been awarded prizes at the Central Florida Exposition in previous years. At present, she has a gallery of approximately 100 of her paintings in Deland where she sponsors exhibits of her own work and that of other artists.” Wells is first listed in the DeLand City Directory in 1924, with her home on North Clara Avenue. In 1926 she moved to 105 1/2 West Indiana Avenue, and in 1944, next door to 111 ½ West Indiana.
The Deland City Directory 1944 lists, “Lillian Wells School of Music, Piano and Voice Instruction, Painting Instruction and Paintings.” The DeLand Sun News would occasionally report, “Miss Wells’ class of juniors give fine piano recital,” or “Miss Lillian Wells to present pupils in a recital.”
In February 1945 Miss Wells and her students presented a musical entertainment for the benefit of the Armed Services Club at DeLand High School. There is little note of her artistic accomplishments. Wells lists in the Deland Directory as an artist until 1949, and thereafter as Lillian Wells School of Music, until 1970. She retired in 1977 but is still listed in the Deland Directory in 1978. Wells died in 1986 and is buried next to her parents in DeLand’s Oakdale Cemetery. Lillian Wells painted forcefully, with moderate impasto, and a shimmering, Renoir like palette, that catches the color and brilliant light of a Florida afternoon. Her landscapes and her picturesque, genre like scenes of DeLand, are some of the best surviving impressionistic painting of early Florida.
Born: 1895, Luxora, Arkansas.
Died: January 30, 1986, DeLand.
Education: Stetson University, Deland, AB, 1918; with H.D. Fluhart; New York City.
Membership: Orlando Art Association; Florida Federation of Art.
Exhibits: Art Out of the Cloisters, semi outdoor exhibit, 107 W. Indiana Avenue, DeLand, December 1932, Around the Town, a series of sketches and a group of flower and landscape paintings; Central Florida Exposition, February 1933, honorary exhibitor.
