Hillary Scott
From fantasy illustration to Tonalism mastery, Hillary Scott transports us to her dreamy visions of the New England landscape.
Hillary Scott is from Northeast Massachusetts and earned her BFA from UMass Lowell (2002) where she was trained as a children's book illustrator. After years of illustrating books she made the transition to landscape painting in 2014 after being inspired by the marshes, seas, and skies of the beautiful New England landscape. She studied with contemporary artists including Karen Blackwood and Sean Beavers and began exhibiting her oil paintings only few years ago and already won several awards with her work in private collections worldwide.
She is a member of the Oil Painters of America, a master artist member of Newburyport Art Association, and represented by Tree's Place Gallery in Orleans MA, Sheldon Fine Art in Newport, RI, Todd Bonita Gallery in Portsmouth, NH, and Valerie's gallery in Newburyport, MA.
We are lucky enough to be offering some of her works for sale here on Tonalism.com within the works for sale section.
Tonalism.com: Do you call or think of yourself as a tonalist? How or why / why not?
Hillary Scott: I have always thought of myself as more of a Luminist than a Tonalist but as they are closely related, my work has elements of both. My work emphasizes light which is something evident in both styles. I have long admired Tonalists for their ability to create a captivating scene with a limited palette and value range.
When I think of Tonalist art, soft, moody, low light atmospheric paintings with subdued color come to mind. Simplicity is another characteristic I appreciate about this style of work. Nothing is overstated, less is more, and I find this very effective.
Crimson Glow: I was shooting photos on Plum Island one evening and the inspiration for this painting happened when the sun went down and left the most brilliant pink glow in the sky. This did not translate well to my reference photos so I had to rely on memory. I must say, I really enjoyed the opportunity to use that pin drop of quinacridone red in the focal point. This is an extremely high chroma color I seldom use now that I'm no longer illustrating children's books.
Tonalism.com: What has been the story of your journey as an artist?
Hillary Scott: From a young age I gravitated to realistic children's style art. My favorite children's books were in the fantasy genre done in a rich, realist style. Chris Van Allsburg and the Hildebrant brothers were a major influence. This fascination eventually led to a career in children's book illustration. In 2002 I graduated with a BFA from UMass Lowell with a concentration in painting and illustration. Shortly after graduation, I ended up in a high school teaching position with barely any education experience. My degree focused only on the craft of painting, not how to teach it. This gig lasted a few years until I was laid off and decided to stay home with my children who were very young at the time. Eventually I got back into creating art and spent years working in the fantasy genre as I landed several private self-publishing contracts. I painted creatures, witches, magical forests, and human figures inside these fantastical scenes. I painted these images for clients but also for my own portfolio. Lighting effects were a major theme in these scenes as was a high chroma color palette. Maxfield Parrish was a big inspiration around this time due to his incredible ability to combine fantasy and realism.
Around 2008 my fantasy art evolved to a more realistic approach utilizing human figures in a landscape. Again, lighting was my focus. I spent a few more years painting what I thought of as my "fine art" style (opposed to illustration) but it was widely perceived as illustrative and fantasy like. At this point I had heard this feedback enough that in the fall of 2014 I decided to sign up for a plein air workshop with Karen Blackwood, a local seascape artist. My goal was to learn how to paint a realistic looking landscape. My work was illustrative by limitation, not intent and I was ready for a change.
Sunset on the Basin: This view is a few steps from my mother in law's house on Plum Island. Although it might not look like it, this was a challenging sky to paint. There were a lot of subtleties in the values/hues and I ended up painting it twice before I had the confidence to paint it large. This was one of the first paintings I was intentionally going for a low light, Tonalist feel.
The plein air workshop was a turning point in my career. From Karen, I learned more in a few months than I had in 4 years at college. I went on to work with other local artists whose work I admired and over the last several years have unlearned many of the bad habits that were impeding my progress as a painter. Everything from my edges to my color palette needed an overhaul. I've worked extensively with Sean Beavers, who helped me understand color through making color charts. Most notably I learned the magic of grays and how they balance areas of higher chroma. This is something the Tonalists do brilliantly.
In 2016 I had 2 years of landscape painting under my belt and was awarded my first solo show, "Land and Sky" at The Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport, MA. After this show I landed my first gallery representation and my career has grown since that point. Right now I am showing at Trees Place Gallery on Cape Cod, Todd Bonita Gallery in Portsmouth, NH , Valerie's Gallery in Newburyport MA and Sheldon Fine Art in Newport RI. Over the last year I have gotten accepted into national exhibitions and have worked hard to get here.
Summer's Glory: This painting evolved a few times but the goal was to achieve a sense of drama with towering clouds, a temperature gradient, and a very low horizon line/light source to create visual tension. This painting is very loosely based on a photographic reference. Memory and imagination was utilized more than usual to create this painting inspired by a view of Plum Island, Massachusetts
Tonalism.com: What are the main objectives of your current approach?
Hillary Scott: The goal of my work is to create an emotional reaction in my viewer. This is quite different than the objective of my earlier work as an illustrator, where I loaded as much detail and chroma as possible into the scene. I mistakenly believed that the more detail I included, the more I would move my viewer. I have found the opposite to be true. I can say more by painting less and I take this approach to every painting. I strive to capture a sense of light, space, and atmosphere in my work. I want my viewer to have a feeling of calm and nostalgia. There is power in simplicity, which is part of why I'm drawn to Tonalist art.
Morning Serenity: This painting features a location that doesn't actually exist. As is often the way, my reference photos were imperfect but had similar lighting and were taken at the same time of day. I decided to take my favorite elements of both places and create this painting.
Tonalism.com: What was the actual process or series of events that led you to paint as you do now?
Hillary Scott: My background as an illustrator paved the way for my current body of work. I have an affinity for clouds, skies, and lighting effects. I am drawn to art with a dreamlike quality and a bit of mystery. This is where my love of illustration came from and I bring this vision to my work today. My latest series of classes/workshops have helped me find my voice as a landscape artist and learn the technical skills, but my roots as an illustrator remain. Though I consider myself a realist, I enjoy the freedom to use my imagination just as I did when I was illustrating children's books.
Tonalism.com: Please describe a little bit of your painting process.
Hillary Scott: My painting process always starts with small color or plein air studies to work out my color scheme, value structure, and composition. I never complete detailed sketches or draw out my composition onto the panel; I am most interested in the large shapes and how they work together. My painting approach is a classical style starting with a monochromatic underpainting followed by layers of transparent glazes. Every painting starts as a brunaille: using burnt umber, solvent, and paper towels I wipe out my lights and block in the large shapes focusing on values. Once this dries, I start by glazing over the underpainting in thin layers of color using refined linseed oil as a medium. I am careful to leave some of the warm underpainting showing through at the end. I do not use a lot of texture or build up of paint in my work, but will occasionally use a thicker application of paint right over the focal point, which is usually the light source. The shadow areas are always kept very thin/transparent.
I prefer a pretty expansive palette which consists of dioxazine purple, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, kings blue, viridian, olive green, green gold, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red medium, cadmium orange, vermillion, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and of course, titanium white. My surface of choice is Claessans double primed oil primed linen #13 or #15.
I work mostly in the studio from plein air studies, photographic references, and a bit of imagination.
Morning Radiance: This painting features a location that has become a favorite of mine. The rising sun coming through the trees shimmering onto the water was magical. It took me several studies to figure out how to best capture the emotions I felt when originally observing the scene. The high horizon line was critical to invite my viewer into the scene, and the atmospheric trees show the vast space beyond it. I actually struggled a bit on whether to crop this painting down to a less panoramic format. Instead, I made a square version which has a more intimate feel ("Enchanted Morning")
Tonalism.com: Could you name any specific influences on your work?
Hillary Scott: Artists who have influenced me include old masters such as Maxfield Parrish, Ivan Shishkin, Martin Johnson Heade, and recently had the opportunity to view the work of Fitz Henry Lane at the Cape Ann Museum. I also enjoy following contemporary masters such as Brent Cotton, Renato Muccillo, Kevin Courter, Joe McGurl, Andrew Tischler, Scott Prior, and Paul Batch.
Tonalism.com: Any advice for the aspiring painters / tonalists?
Hillary Scott: Find a mentor or instructor whose work you admire and learn from them.
Nothing is more important than a strong composition and values; you can make a stunning painting with almost no color.
Less is more! Keep this in mind when designing and executing a painting.
Make the color charts. In my opinion they are the only way you can truly understand how to use color. Yes, they are tedious but there are no shortcuts. I made mine based on Munsell color theory but there is more than one way to do them. Richard Schmid talks about another way in his book "Alla Prima."
Paint from life, you cannot be a great landscape artist without plein air painting. I will always enjoy the studio more than plein air but I make myself go outside and paint. As a wise instructor once told me: "plein air painting is like taking your brain to the gym."
Paint as often as possible, get honest critiques, and learn from you successes as well as your failed paintings.
September Song: This is the same location and morning that references for "Morning Radiance" were taken. This view was opposite the light source so it has a different feel to it. I was struck by the atmospheric perspective of the distant trees and the light streaking across the grass. Algae and water lilies are part of why I love this location, but also tools I use to create compositional interest
Tonalism.com: Saving the big question for last, what is art’s purpose in the world?
Hillary Scott: Art's purpose is about creating an emotional connection. I used to believe it was enough to simply make a pretty painting; pretty is not enough. Art should evoke an emotional reaction in some way. Art has the ability to transport the viewer to another place and time, to provide a much needed distraction from the daily chaos we are all used to.