Growing up amid a family of artists in Trujillo, Peru—a restored colonial city brimming with exquisite art and architecture— Hilda 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. “My paintings reflect what touches my senses, what makes me laugh inside, and makes my heart jump with excitement and anticipation,” 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 has been featured in the cover of SkyWest Magazine http://www.skywestmagazine.com/pdf/09SkyWestJulyAugust_web.pdf, the Ventura Hillsides Conservancy chose her painting "Two Trees II" for their promotional poster in 2007.
Kilpatrick has shown her work at the Museum of Ventura County, City of Ventura Mayor’s Office, been honored with the City of Ventura 2007-08 Artist Fellowship; awarded the Founders and People’s Choice at the 70th Annual Santa Paula Art & Photography Show and been featured in national publications such as Southwest Art Magazine and the Los Angeles Times.
In 2008, Kilpatrick won the First Prize– Limoneira Award, Ag Art Alliance: Second Annual “Art About Agriculture Exhibit”, California Oil Museum, Santa Paula.
In 2006 she won the 1st. Prize for the Plein Air Exhibit at the Ventura County Maritime Museum. She has been featured at several Ventura ArtWalk events at The Upstairs Gallery at Natalie’s Eclectibles, the Buenaventura Gallery and Accolades Gallery. 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.
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