Hill goes from animator to painter
PAA to hold reception for featured artist today
After leaving a highly-coveted career in Hollywood, working primarily as an animator for the likes of Disney, Marvel and Universal, Glen Hill decided to follow his true passion of painting landscapes, portraiture and animals, which will be on display at the Porterville Art Association until July 8.
A reception for Hill, who is the featured artist, will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. today at the Art Association on Main Street.
Everyone has a story on how they got their start in their career. Some were born into it, some were forced into it and others stumbled upon it by accident.
Hill, who was born in Chicago and raised in Poway, found his passion for painting in high school when he discovered some prints of the late Norman Rockwell at a gallery in Rancho Bernardo, a master-planned community in the northern hills of San Diego. The painting he really took interest in is called “Saying Grace,” which Rockwell painted in 1951 for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post for its Thanksgiving issue.
“That [painting] just blew me away,” Hill said. “That is all I wanted to do after seeing that painting.”
The painting depicts a woman and a young boy saying grace in a crowded restaurant while others watch.
The simplicity of the painting, the way in which it tells a story by capturing the essence of a basic act in an everyday setting represents the very thing Hill tries to emulate in each one of his works of art.
“I try to create a response in the person who is looking at it so that they can feel something from their past in the piece that I am creating,” Hill said. “So instead of a film telling a full story, I try to do the same with a single image.”
Hill often spends hours, sometimes weeks and months to complete one of his paintings in order to tell a story with as many details as he can.
One picture in particular where Hill believes he achieved his goal is “Flags for Sale,” which is currently being displayed at the Porterville Art Association gallery.
In the painting, Hill depicts a little girl who is trying to sell American flags at a Fourth of July parade. Hill said even though viewers may not all see the same thing when looking at the picture, he hopes that capturing the moment will “remind us of our childhood and our love of the country.”
“I think we all have shared memories such as of childhood and turkey dinners and beautiful sunsets and children,” Hill said. “Just simple moments that we share in our lives that we can relate to. That is basically all I try to capture.”
That is what Hill has been striving to capture ever since he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in illustration from Arts Center College of Design in 1978.
After viewing his vast array of paintings, sculptors and drawings at the art association, some of which include the rushing water of the Sequoia Falls, a homeless man pushing a shopping cart filled with his belongings and a woman reading a newspaper outside of a corner bookstore, it is safe to say that he has, once again, met his mark.
He has also achieved his objective of painting “whatever I feel like,” which he said is refreshing, especially after being restricted to pleasing his superiors in the Hollywood industry for 20-something years.
“I fell in love with the brilliant people in the animation business, but the pull and the draw to be free as a fine artist, to paint with oils on canvas was just too much and finally I was able to break away and become a painter again,” Hill said. “Whatever strikes my interest is what I allow myself to paint now.”
When it comes to painting, Hill said he prefers painting on location.
“I would rather capture as much as I can of the natural light by painting [outside] because a camera and the printing of colors are not as accurate,” Hill said.
Yet, “if the flies are too bad or it is too cold or too wet,” Hill resorts to painting in his studio in Visalia, working from photo reference and memory.
These days, however, Hill spends more time in the classroom, teaching drawing, painting, illustration and sculpture to students at Porterville College and West Hills College, which he said has improved his own artistic abilities.
“My artwork just skyrocketed teaching so I owe a great debt to my students,” said Hill, adding that teaching has helped him remember long-forgotten lessons he learned years ago when he was in school. “I have learned more from my students than they have ever gathered from me and that is not just words, that is the truth.”
Hill said he plans on teaching for another five years or so and then hopes to break away and paint full-time and show his work to “anybody and everybody who would like to show Glen Hill’s representational farm life and portraiture type of work.”
His first stop on what he hopes is a long journey is the Porterville Art Association.
Joy Harvey, the vice president of the art association, said she couldn’t be more happy to display Hill’s work.
“I am proud that his work is in our gallery,” Harvey said. “I think it is surreal that we have his work in our gallery in Porterville because it is the kind of work that can be displayed all over the world. Any fine art gallery would be happy to have his work.”