About
Born and raised in Western Colorado, Hilary Stein is an artist whose work is formed by a deep connection to the land. She holds an MFA from the Marchutz School of Fine Arts in Aix-en-Provence, France and a BFA in Fine Arts and French from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN.
She currently spends her time teaching Art full time at Hotchkiss K-8 and travels to the south of France in the summer to teach painting and drawing to high school, university and adult continuing education students at the Leo Marchutz School of Painting and Drawing.
It is foundational to her work to draw inspiration from the raw and austere landscape of the high desert in which she lives and the surprising abundance which springs from it. Her painting practice is an exploration of one’s interrelation with the land and of the longing to belong more harmoniously with it.
Her personal statement:
The act of painting for me is a surrender to the process of discovery. It is a continual relinquishing of the ego in order to look more deeply into the relationships that exist within the natural world and their correspondence within the self.
My work is driven by the fundamental value of looking into the world rather than at it. This practice of looking necessitates a letting go and an openness to how the visible world reveals itself in constant flux.
“Nature is inside us,” said Cézanne.
It is my hope that the paintings I produce might be a call to contemplate this - that they might be a small step in the direction towards a deeper seeing into the natural world and ultimately towards giving back to it.
It seems to be that the more wholly one perceives the natural world and lives in reciprocity with it, the more one may understand wholeness operating in a work of art and ultimately, in oneself.