The first thing you notice when you enter Sue Miller¡¯s home in Lake Shawnee is that there are original paintings everywhere you look. Colorful full size canvases depict beautiful female models as fairies, mermaids, angels and much more. They line the walls, are propped along the floor and highlight every room. The effect is stunning, and there is so much to see. It is a veritable wonderland of art, and it is all the work of painter, artist, designer and teacher Miller.

"I live to paint," Miller said. "It brings me incredible joy, and I have been doing it all my life."

Now retired from full-time work, Miller appears to be busier than ever. She is painting constantly and discovering new markets for her art. She has been included in book collections, markets everything from jewelry to postcards, and still teaches art to students in her home.

"I have cut back on the teaching a bit," Miller admitted. "At the height of my home schooling period, I had 130 students from age five to senior citizens coming in and out of here."

The house was hopping, Miller said, and the Star-Ledger even labeled her home "the house of art and music." Many of her students have gone on to brilliant careers in fine art, graphic design and commercial art.

Miller was born into a life of art as the daughter of Tony Pacheco, a well-known artist of the 1950s and 1960s, acclaimed for his "long-legged ladies," a popular vintage art style. Miller studied with her father and attended the Swain School of Design. Originally from Dartmouth, Mass., Miller attended South Eastern Massachusetts University (which has since merged into the University of Massachusetts). There she majored in painting. Her father suggested trying her hand at commercial art, which was often a surer way of earning a living. This led her to her first job at a department store in Massachusetts, and a career that lasted 20 years.

Although working in commercial art, Miller never stopped painting and pursuing her true calling. Along the way she met Vern Miller, a musician profiled this past January in AIM Jefferson as a member of the 1960s rock group, The Remains. The couple recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary this past March. It was while they lived in Rhode Island that Miller embarked on another stage of her career, as a graphic artist in advertising.

Miller¡¯s list of employers is long and varied, from advertising agencies to the Daily Record here in Morris County. She worked for a real estate firm, and for a now-defunct department store called Shelby¡¯s, which was when the Millers moved to Jefferson. When she was laid off from that store in the early 1990s, the next phase of her career began: art teacher. Perhaps not surprisingly, she found combining her passion for painting with an apparent gift for teaching to be extremely rewarding¡­and very successful.

"As soon as I put an ad in the local paper, the phone never stopped ringing," Miller said. "It was such a joy teaching people, and I loved doing shows, especially with the youngsters."

To this day, Miller still hears from the many students she has taught, and her Facebook page has nearly 5,000 friends who keep up with her art and career.

Miller has cut back on her teaching, and she only handles a few students a few days a week with limited hours. But that does not mean she has slowed down. In fact, her career has branched out in many different ways as she has discovered how to license her work to a wide range of products. Her website features samples of these products, from original paintings for sale to jewelry and key chains; rubber stamp art to greeting cards; and even blankets, pillows and magnets.

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"I am working with several companies and publishers to market my art," Miller explained. "I just keep finding new venues to express my art, and I just keep painting." Admitting to a lack of skill at creating art on a computer, Miller still does her work the "old-fashioned" way ¨C painting on large canvasses then using a digital camera to record it for use in her ventures.

Miller¡¯s passion for art comes through in her conversation and her mannerisms. Her home is like an art museum, with some space put aside for her husband to work on his music. She exudes enthusiasm, and her friendliness and openness is obvious to anyone she meets. Her art takes on many subjects and forms, but it reigns supreme in the fantasy worlds she creates. She uses real models as inspiration for her work, many of whom are family members or students. From that she paints a world of pure imagination that features mermaids, angels, princesses, wizards and more. Her work is colorful and expressive, and always focuses on the beauty her artistic eye sees. There are not many dark and foreboding images, unless they are for a certain purpose.

Miller¡¯s work has been licensed through her many companies and can be viewed on her website at suemillerart.com. They include Caf¨¦ Press, Magnetic Fantacies, Peaceful Art Jewelry Designs and many more. She is working on a deck of angel cards ¨C patterned after the Tarot cards ¨C with a writer from India named Tina Sarup who will provide text. She has worked with All American Craft Publishers and been featured in several magazines such as "Pure Inspiration," "Wisdom Magazine" and publications focusing on angels. In fact, her art was on the cover of "Wisdom Magazine" so often that she was dubbed "The Norman Rockwell of Wisdom Magazine."

Miller has also been published in several books of art, including last year in Pure Inspiration¡¯s Fantasy Art Collection (Lightstream Publishing, LLC), a compilation of "16 extraordinary artists." She has been featured in Linda Ravenscroft¡¯s How To Draw & Paint Fairies, and in Myrea Pettit¡¯s 500 Fairy Motifs. In 2008, she and Vern produced Funtasy Fun-To-See Art, a book of her pictures accompanied by Vern¡¯s words, published by Hummingbird Heaven, LLC.

"It¡¯s been an amazing ride," Miller said. "I¡¯ve been at this for over 40 years, and I feel like I have just begun." Miller feels her career could really hit the big time if she was just a little more aggressive in making appearances on her own behalf. "I know I should be going to art shows and places where I can exhibit my work and get greater exposure," Miller said, "but believe it or not, I am a little shy about that."

With so many products out there, and her work appearing in so many magazines and books, it¡¯s easy to believe Miller will get the exposure her fans feel she deserves. She is very active in pursuing new avenues to produce her work, new licensing arrangements and new worlds to conquer. She plans on concentrating on the angel market, something she finds very inspiring. She is working on the deck of angel cards and enjoys working on the magnetic art products. She is actively networking and hopes to collaborate on more joint projects with her husband.

One thing seems certain when it comes to Sue Miller.

"I am going to keep painting," she said, a look of joy and enthusiasm on her face. "I am never going to stop."

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