Olivia Hill

Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Artist statement

My painting practice revolves around an expansive exploration of landscape and land use, encompassing not just the natural and artificial features of a space but also the passage of time, and the social and psychic resonance that shapes our understanding of place. This conceptual inquiry is accompanied by my invention of innovative painting techniques that embody a subject as well as depict it. Through this investigation, I aim to create a visual narrative that reflects humanity's place within the cosmos. Using the landscape genre as a foundation, I delve into both traditional representations—offering broad, establishing views of a place—and focused examinations of the artifacts, marks, and organizational features left by human incursions. My research is informed by a diverse set of tools and resources, including earth surveillance technology like Google Earth, illustrated science books on cosmology and nature, academic writings, and my own fieldwork in the outdoors. I use an array of both traditional and experimental painting techniques to create textures that "feel" like as well as look like their reference. Using measured amounts of oil, pigment, and mineral spirits, I pour, splatter, stamp, and stencil paint to create the likeness of geological patterns and plant structures. The elements of the scene waver between rendered illusions in pictorial space and painterly marks on the surface. I choose imagery based on its ability to call out something about the predicament...

Artwork