Norwich artist Philippa Miller, who had crowds flocking to two cathedral exhibitions in her centenary year, has died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 101.

By Ian Collins

Norwich artist Philippa Miller, who had crowds flocking to two cathedral exhibitions in her centenary year, has died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 101.

The first of those displays showcased her greatest legacy to her adopted city: scores of documentary wartime pictures depicting bomb damage from Grove Road to Grapes Hill. This unique and priceless record is now donated to the Castle Museum.

The second show, An Artist's Broadland, traced a life-long love of our region's waterways in fluid, celebratory watercolours.

Pippa Miller was the daughter of an Oulton Broad boat-builder who produced yachts and cruisers and, in 1908, a prototype hydroplane for Brooke Marine.

The Millers would take to the water each September in a converted wherry, and Pippa would join her parents in painting the unfolding scenes. Soon she was sailing her own craft.

As far back as 1923 she wrote: “The wonder of Broadland, its delights and charm - I love every breath of it. Even in a storm, when all the furies are let loose, then I am completely happy.”

Complete happiness was her usual state of being, and it was reflected down the decades in a steady flow of watercolours from every bank of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads.

In 1929 Lowestoft - “Land of the Rising Sun and Gateway to the Broads” - prepared for a bumper tourist season by printing 40,000 copies of a town guide, with a Pippa Miller painting on the cover. That is now the classic image of the pre-war seaside holiday.

After attending Lowestoft School of Art, Miss Miller moved to Norwich - teaching art and craft at what became the Blyth-Jex Comprehensive School from 1930. She made witty model sculptures and continued to delight in painting, walking and sailing across her beloved Broadland.