Bob Hill

I have had a keen interest in drawing and painting since my early schooldays and probably enjoyed my art classes more than any other subject up to the age of 16 and  I fondly recollect being presented with prizes for art on 3 occasions at the annual school speech days.  At this point in my education I was persuaded to drop art in order to focus on ‘A’ Level subjects that were perceived to give me a better chance of making a decent living as a chartered engineer.

During my higher education and working life, however, I remained a compulsive doodler and sketcher whenever I had a pen or pencil in my hands, often to the detriment of the intended tasks that the pen or pencil was initially meant to perform.  These drawing activities over three and a half decades proved invaluable when I eventually decided to develop my painting skills on a broader front using various paint mediums including oils, acrylics, watercolour and pastels under the tutorship of a few well known and respected art teachers.

My principal subjects are landscapes, cityscapes, docks and similar water scenes, where I am particularly inspired by the challenges posed from the combinations of reflections, shadows and refracted submerged images that appear and disappear when water is disturbed.

I also enjoy the challenges involved in life drawing and abstract painting that respectively develop an artist’s observational skills and compositional awareness.

My paintings have been exhibited at the London Mall Galleries (RIW and the Pastel Society), Birkenhead Williamson Art Gallery (WSA-Malcesine, Lake Garda- Commended 2009) and Wirral BC Spring Exhibitions- (Yellow Buses, Dublin- Prizewinner 2007), Down to a Fine Art (Stretton, Nr Chester) Chester Grosvenor Museum, ‘Artist’ and ‘Leisure Painter’ National Exhibition at Patchings Art Convention (prize winner 4 times in the last 10 years)- Notts, Deeside Art Group, Grosvenor Art Society (Chester), Black Sheep Gallery (Hawarden), Tirley Garth, Colin Jellicoe Gallery (Manchester), Dee Fine Arts (Heswall), Castle Park Arts Centre (Frodsham), Royal Cambrian Academy Gallery in Conwy, and many local events.

I undertake commissions in Oils, Acrylics, Watercolour and Mixed media.