Today we’d like to introduce you to Lee Hill.
Lee, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
After High School I started out in the fine arts program at Texas Tech University in Lubbock honing my skills at drawing, painting and sculpture. After that first year seeing what the architecture students were doing next door in the College of Architecture, I switched majors and ended up graduated with a 5-year professional degree in Architecture. On time by-the-way by going to summer school. Being a fairly practical minded person, it appeared to be a more structured and viable path to being creative while also making a living.
I got married right out of school in 1986. My new wife Laurie and I moved to New Haven, Connecticut which is on the outer fringe of the New York Metropolitan area. My interest in painting took a backseat while I focused on a career in architecture for the next eleven years. As sometimes happens to adventurous Texans who move out of state, we found ourselves pulled back to be near family and settled in Fort Worth. That was about twenty years and two kids ago…we’re still married!
A few Christmases after we got to Fort Worth my wife announced she was pregnant with our first by handing me a positive pregnancy test and an art supply kit. She said, “Keep your mind busy and calm by starting to paint, I know you’ve always wanted to go back it”. That’s pretty much how it started.
From there, I kept at it over many years and believe I have finally developed into a decent abstract painter. I’m currently represented by Joseph Gierek Fine Art in Tulsa. My large scale abstract paintings have also been shown at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art in California, Angelo State University, Fort Works Art and ARTSPACE 111 in Fort Worth, the K-Space Contemporary in Corpus Christie, the LHUCA in Lubbock and currently at Ryan James Fine Arts in Seattle and Gallery Harang in Seoul South Korea.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, not a smooth road at all. In the beginning I struggled just to understand how to handle materials much less figure out what my creative voice would be. I did not take painting lessons because I felt I had too many questions about what I was doing to even engage with a teacher and I was a bit embarrassed at how little I really knew. So, I’m self-taught through a whole lot of trial and error, personal engagement with contemporary art and research into how other painters have developed their own work. It also didn’t help that I knew absolutely no one I felt could really teach me how to get to the vision I had in my head.
The internet really solved a lot of the struggles I had in beginning. That and digital photography. It was 1999 when I first began to spend serious time painting and these things were in their infancy. To show your work, you really had to be intimately embedded in a larger art community and that was hard to do outside of a full-time job and raising a young family. Photographing the work was painstaking too. Elaborate lighting, film, slide projectors, specialty photographers…I don’t miss any of that even though I still use a photographer. The advent of digital files with the ability to transmit them online meant an entire world of juried shows and gallery submissions opened up. YouTube videos of other artists demonstrating different painting techniques have also been helpful. Younger artists take all this for granted. But for me, I really believe I would never have been able to figure out how to paint and show my work without it…it’s been miraculous.
Now one step even further is social media on mobile platforms. At the insistence of Lauren Childs at Fort Works Art Gallery in Fort Worth, I’ve been on Instagram for about two years. I get poo-pooed about it from older artist but again, the entire world has opened up for me including the opportunity to be featured on Voyage Dallas. The ability to see and be seen in real time with other artists, galleries, curators, consultants, museums and art fairs all over the globe has really been a game changer. Especially, for someone like me who is geographically isolated from the main centers of art like New York, Los Angles and London.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Lee A. Hill – Abstract Painter – what should we know?
I have a small studio in my two-car garage. I converted it myself a few years ago after I outgrew a very hot and cold attic space I was using for many years before. I’ve now taken over my garage to the point where I’m beginning to think about an even larger space.
What sets me apart from other fine artists is that I’m also a practicing architect. This also sets me apart from most architects. The time, energy and focus it takes to excel in both professional fields is tremendous. It’s often not understood by my colleagues on either side of this divide. But, over the years I have found that my intellectual skills are transferable between the two.
As for what I would like to be known for, I attended a lecture given by the artist KAWS a few years ago at the Modern in Fort Worth. What struck me the most about what he said was, “I always focus on producing the highest quality art through the highest level of craftsmanship”. Sounds a lot like an architect! I’m proud of how far my painting work has developed and how much the quality has improved. I like to think I’m beginning to be known for large, bold and colorful abstractions that have been meticulously executed through a painting process that is a lot more complicated than it looks.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Focus, determination and the ability to move past rejection quickly.
Contact Info:
- Address: Fort Worth, Texas
- Website: www.leeahill.com
- Email: lee@leeahill.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/hillee_00
Image Credit:
David Wharton Fine Art Photography
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