Artist Bio

Martha Hill is an abstract artist residing in Kingston, NY, who is inspired by color, mood, and the natural beauty of the Hudson Valley. After earning a BFA, she worked for a decade in non-profit organizations.  Martha earned her master’s in teaching in 2001 and was a special education teacher until 2022. During this time, she worked with pastels and charcoal, and beginning in 2011, studied at the Woodstock School of Art. After discovering the joy of working with oil paints, she developed a body of work combining mark-making with palette knife painting. She also creates monotypes and collages. Martha’s work has been shown in numerous Hudson Valley locations including Arbor Gallery, ArtBar Gallery, Emerge Gallery, Gallery 40, Art Society of Kingston, Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, and the Woodstock School of Art.

Artist Statement

Art is essential for me to express what I can only share through a visual language. As long as I can remember, I’ve interacted with the world primarily visually, noticing color, pattern, and contrasts in light and dark. Painting allows me to share my experience with others and at the same time process my emotions and responses to the world. Drawing in my sketchbook and creating monotypes also play a role in my artistic practice, supporting and enriching my primary focus on painting.

Intrigued by color and movement, my paintings often stem from a memory of colors, an emotion, or mark-making.  To start, I make a few pencil marks to break up the space, mix several colors, then begin applying paint with palette knives. As the piece progresses, observing how colors and shapes relate and echo each other, I continue to shape the composition by adding and removing paint.

Each artwork feels like creating choreography or a musical score as I interact with the space. Working intuitively, references to landscape may emerge or the work may remain abstract. I find that people bring their own experiences to viewing art, especially abstract work.  To me, my work feels like inner landscapes or atmospheres. It evokes a sense of place yet allows the viewer to decide where that place might be.

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My Process

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Painting

How do my paintings begin? Living in New York's Hudson Valley, I see beautiful vistas of mountains, fields, woodlands, water, and skies during different seasons and times of day. Often a landscape I've seen stays in my memory and I paint from that impression. Other times, a painting begins when I envision a color or group of colors - a specific blue or green, or maybe a range of warm and cool grays.  I start mixing paint and other colors emerge as complements and contrasts.

I often start on the paper by breaking up the space with pencil marks. Using palette knives to apply and remove paint, I can work in varying sections of color and also use the knives as drawing tools. As I continue to interact with the space, I add emphasis with more pencil or a pop of bright color. When the process is at its best, I'm able to step out of the way and let the painting lead me. The result may represent an inner landscape as well as an outer one.

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Drawing & Mixed-Media​

I have always enjoyed drawing and mark-making. An array of pencils and charcoal make differing lines that can express a range of emotions. One mark leads to another, and another, creating movement across the paper.  I start playing with color, making shapes and lines with palette knives, and the composition develops.

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I like to work in a square format because it removes the expectations that come with a landscape or portrait-oriented rectangle.  The symmetry of a square encourages the viewer’s eye to move around the space.  In addition, with an abstract piece, I can turn the work, looking at it in all four directions. This helps me make decisions about composition and choose the final orientation.

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​Printmaking

There are many types of printmaking - I'm drawn to monotypes because the process is akin to drawing or painting.  Working on a plexiglass plate, you apply and remove ink with various tools to create an image.  Printing monotypes is an exciting mystery since you can't predict exactly how the pressure of the press will affect the ink. You can end up with some interesting surprises.

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