Biography

Hillary Turley Hibbard, or HT Hibbard, is the granddaughter of Aldro T Hibbard– the American Impressionist most famous for his New England snow scenes. AT (Aldro) was a founding father of the Rockport School of Painting and subsequently the The Rockport Art Association & Museum.

Born in 1975, Hillary grew up in the historic mountain town of Virginia City, NV. She spent many years of her life painting in an attic room of a Victorian mansion.

She received her BFA degree with an emphasis in painting from the University of Nevada Reno in 2001. Her thesis presentation at the Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery received media attention through the Reno- Gazette Journal. She has had solo and group exhibitions with the Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery, Sierra Arts Foundation, Utah Artist’s Guild, and the Springville Museum of Art.

The life and legacy of her grandfather inspired Hillary to pursue a career in painting. The influence of artistic parents also helped her to gain appreciation for all the arts, most especially fine art impressionism/European luminism, as well as antique French, and Victorian pattern design. In addition to the family Victorian mansion, her parents also restored a large barn on a historic vineyard homestead in Napa Valley into what later became a fairy-tale french country cottage. These contrasting locations, both indoors and out, were visually inspiring to her throughout her life as a painter, and in the unique way she makes fine art landscape painting a part and partial element in the patterns she creates. This proved to Hillary that painting is indeed the backbone of the visual arts and is an amazing, sustainable source of inspiration for fine art creations. Hillary wishes to leave a timeless, masterful imprint of her own on the impressionistic landscape art scene.

When it comes to painting, the works of many late 19th century impressionists became the bread and butter for Hillary’s inspiration, but most especially Emile Claus. For Hillary, a realism painting should emit an almost mystic light source that appears to resonates from the inside out. This lustrous atmospheric, visual experience is what the impressionists and (neo-impressionists) achieved with the use of broken color. It describes to the human soul, a sense of soul within the painting itself. Therefore, a visual dialogue can exist between the painting and the viewer, in a silent spiritual discussion of transcendent things such as: love, hope, truth, optimism, joy etc. The landscape, when perceived and rendered through a human experience with nature, can reveal to the viewer a sense of unprecedented beauty and truth. This remarkable process is an on going one. It is a well-spring without an end to the visual poetry from which to draw out each and every new painting.

An honest understanding of impressionism didn’t emerge until much later when she came upon a blog written by Stapleton Kearns. Stapleton is a contemporary master New England impressionist, and ironically a devoted follower of Hillary’s grandfather – Aldro T Hibbard. The instruction within his blog afforded Hillary with a better understanding of how the impressionistic technique can literally act as a vehicle for the visual exploration of a landscape, while at the same time becoming a means for drawing up endless visual poetry. These lessons became pivotal to her focus and career, and although a native to the west, Hillary’s artistic foundation is built upon the legacy of New Englanders past and present. Therefore, she is making plans to return to those roots – Where the snow laden Vermont villages and quaint harbor scenes, once only observed in her grandfather’s paintings, will become the extended backyard of her own gallery. A gallery of which will become a Victorian mansion like that of her childhood home.

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