Brian Hillman …… 1943 …
I’ve always enjoyed making things, so sculpture was a natural place to start.
It was a windy path to get there, taking in writing TV commercials for talking peas, selling Scotch whisky to French bankers, writing annual reports for government agencies.
I studied when I could, first with pupils of Karin Jonzen and Cecil Collins, then at the Art Academy, London., where under the aegis of Tanya Russell and Ivan Klapez I gained a diploma in 2005.
All materials I’ve tried are interesting to work with. I experimented with plaster, wax, metal, stone. I also soon discovered my love of working with found objects.
With the lightest of touches, their essential isness can remain intact.
Drawing was always part of the discipline. This transposed also into painting and I began to work with colour, volume, harmony, and still do as best I can.
The graphic work has gone through various stages, initially closely informed by a sculptural approach it has since relaxed, and once in a while provides a real surprise.
Since 2010 I have been taking occasional painting master classes with Dilip Sur who has unequivocally opened my painting heart.
Is there a touchstone to my work?
There is. It’s the same as the touchstone, sometimes lost then again found, that informs the living life. There are no words that I have that can even begin to describe it. Hence the work. Fingers crossed that you find something here that gives you little pleasure.
Do I have any secrets?
Not secrets exactly, important things I’ve picked up along the way.
Firstly, if something in a piece doesn’t sit right with you, and the medium will allow, change it at once. Don’t wait.
Secondly, the whole idea of mental control has to go. It is a flow.
And the background:
Whatever the form, the subtle essence of a work of art shares and shows all that is going on in the heart, mind, attitude, exertions of the creator of the work. That is the real communication. So the work is inner as well as outer
Keep going
Most of the time struggle is normal. Perseverance increases the flow.
The more the flow, the more life there is in the work.
It’s all about process.
You who are reading this, it’s your looking that brings it to life.