Award Winner Artist Shares “Ventura Sunsets and Local Scenes” At Solo Show in April

April 13, 2007

VENTURA, CA—A solo show exhibiting new oil paintings by Peruvian-born Hilda Kilpatrick, a resident of Oxnard, will be featured April 28 through May 20 at the Visitors Center at 89 South California Street in downtown Ventura. The public is also invited to a free reception honoring the artist on Saturday, April 28 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Kilpatrick will be on hand to discuss her work and the passion that the colors of Ventura inspire within her.

Growing up amid a family of artists in Trujillo, Peru—a restored colonial city brimming with exquisite art and architecture—Kilpatrick dreamed of becoming an artist at a young age.

Eventually, a yearlong sojourn to Europe launched her ideas into action as she was inspired by the Continent’s great museums. Here, quaint flower markets, doorways and windows became her subjects as she set up her easel in plazas and on streetcorners. But it was her first year living in the U.S. that really got her going. With nothing to do but wait for a work permit, Kilpatrick began painting daily.

Fascinated by the beauty found in nature, Kilpatrick’s oil paintings are primarily landscapes, local scenes and places that “speak to her soul.” She prefers to work outdoors and standing up because it affords her a better perspective. “My paintings reflect what touches my senses, what makes me laugh inside, and makes my heart jump with excitement and anticipation,” she says.

While in the field, Kilpatrick makes a “sketch painting” and often takes photographs for future reference. Next, she displays the work on her “drying wall”—a name her husband has coined for the living-room wall at their home.

Here, at her home studio, she refines her initial idea. “The studio is a place for creating more complete canvases based on the experiences of painting outdoors,” she says.

Kilpatrick works “alla prima,” meaning “without layering”—wet on wet, from top to bottom. She never works long on a single painting in order to preserve her spontaneity. She sets a painting’s tone and value by first blurring the white canvas using an “imprimatura” technique—a transparent wash in “terracotta,” her favorite color. She next sketches on the canvas, and, as she says, “Now the fun begins.”

Artist Hilda Kilpatrick won the First Place at the Plein Air Exhibit at the Ventura County Maritime Museum in 2006. She has been featured at several Ventura ArtWalk events, Buenaventura Gallery and Accolades Gallery. She was one of 12 artists selected to paint a seascape for the 2007 Ventura Music Festival. She was one of 11 artists selected to paint a violin promoting the 2005 Ventura Music Festival. Entitled, “Two Trees,” Kilpatrick’s violin painting has been featured in several publications including the Los Angeles Times. Kilpatrick’s paintings are in many private collections around the world. She feels her style has been enhanced by her extensive travel throughout France, Italy, Greece and Peru, and that life should be lived as an adventure.