Paul K. Hill
Oils
http://www.cloudpainter.org
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Paul Hill Biography
November 2011
The landscape painter, Paul Hill, was born in the winter of 1959 in the heart of the Enchanted Mountains in the farming community of Hinsdale, New York. It is located about seventy miles south east of Buffalo and the wonder of Niagara Falls. He grew up just north of the seat of the Seneca Nation Indian Reservation and Franciscan founded St. Bonaventure University. Nearby Olean shared its own rich history with stories of George Washington, Houdini and Al Capone. Mr. Hill grew up with the Kinzua Dam controversy, hiked many hundreds of wooded hills, fished an old millpond and scoured the banks of the old Genesee Valley Canal, which ran through his grandfather’s land. He hunted and made shelters with his friends, even constructing a real log cabin in the manner of the pioneers with axe and hand drill.
Mr. Hill’s first conscious artwork appeared at age twelve when he painted a red-winged blackbird and a dodo bird – examples of the thriving and extinct. Hill’s father built the family house by hand and Paul carved the 2 x 4 scraps into wildlife sculptures while continuing making wildlife drawings and paintings.
A turning point came for Mr. Hill when, at his birthday request, he was driven to the Albright Knox Museum and was exposed for the first time to the paintings of Albert Bierstadt. He was especially impressed by Frederick Church’s, “Twilight in the Wilderness.”
Mr. Hill attended a local art class where he learned the old master’s oil technique of underpainting and glazing. Around this same time, he met his future mentor, James Cole Young. An art professor at St. Bonaventure University, Young was an accomplished painter in his own right. Paul Hill received his B.A. in painting from State University of New York at Binghamton and his M.F.A in painting from Edinboro State University of Pennsylvania in 1991. In 1994 Hill moved to Atlanta, Georgia where he met his wife Jennifer.
Paul Hill’s works have been included in
many local, national, juried, and independent exhibitions. He has been
involved with several galleries and independent projects. He regularly
donates work to many charitable organizations for auction. For the past
several years, Hill has been working on a large-scale series of
paintings exploring the natural wonders of Georgia. He currently
resides in Atlanta with his wife and three children.
November 2011
Painting directly from the landscape gives me the opportunity to learn new rhythms, patterns, movements and generate fresh, spontaneous color combinations. This is my way to develop a visual fluency in the language of landscape. Nature can be fast. My hand tries to keep up. Sometimes I get lucky and connect with a sort of shorthand to capture these fleeting moments, these places, these eras. I am an oil painter. I have designed, built, tested, and refined much of the equipment I use in the field. I am well versed in the ways and techniques of the 19th century American landscape painters. This direct method of oil painting from nature is the means by which much of my recent work in considered finished.
When I am inventing a landscape, I always develop a sense of place. Residing in every physical place, including wilderness, lives an immaterial space that tells us about a way of life. I like to think I am painting an intelligent landscape. If I can include what collective knowledge of the cosmos and concerns for spirituality we have, such as local colors, hidden ideas or history, I will make, at the very least, some enjoyable and entertaining landscape paintings.
Being invited and participating in the visiting artist program on Ossabaw Island is a great opportunity to aid, first hand, in preserving this great unspoiled, beautiful place. This is continuing education at its highest level. Every artist who comes here to work and explore contributes, whether knowingly or unknowingly, to strengthening the Ossabaw Island Foundation’s promise to Ms. West’s courageous vision for the Island. It is a remarkable and rare experience. This is a real working environment, and necessary for understanding what art and artists can do to feel included in making a positive impact in today’s world
