PVCC Puma Press: March 2005

Each week Wendy Hill, PVCC Adjunct faculty, teaches 10 studio art classes throughout the Valley for a total of approximately 30 hours. She is at her easel at 5:30 a.m., stops to leave her studio to teach, and spends most evenings painting until around midnight. Petite and blonde, Hill lives her craft and encourages others to do the same.

Though she loves painting, she says her most rewarding moments come when she is sharing with students. “Everyone has it in them,” she says. “It’s my job to encourage students to find that creativity in themselves.”

Born in England, Hill was 6 weeks old when the U.S. Army Air Force transferred her father, his war bride and their new baby stateside. Like most military families, the Hills moved several times during her father’s service career. Hill studied art at Hanford High School in Bel Air, Maryland and earned an Associate of Arts in Graphic Design at Santa Barbara City College. In 1975, she earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, majoring in painting and sculpture. She was a metal sculptor and welder for 12 years before she accepted a position at the University of South Alabama where she illustrated medical textbooks and teaching aids for 11 years.

Earning her Master’s of Arts in Education degree from the University of Phoenix qualifies Hill to teach all levels of art including an advanced course in watercolor and mixed media at PVCC.

Hill specializes in the art of watercolor crayon, but she also teaches oils and acrylics at local and national workshops. She maintains LAF’N H’ART Studio in Gilbert where she completes commissioned works including murals and portraits of both people and animals.

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She stumbled upon her method accidentally one day while using a steam iron to remove an annoying fold from a painting.
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Hill employs a unique method of mixed media on linen. She stumbled upon her method accidentally one day while using a steam iron to remove an annoying fold from a painting. Now, she sketches her basic design in hot pink watercolor pencil, creates dimension with layers of watercolor crayons and acrylic paints and completes the process by steaming the canvas. This technique shrinks the fibers, binds the paint, creates brilliant colors and intensifies the effects of texture and depth. To complete the piece, the linen is stretched over a frame, often with part of the painting wrapped around the sides. The sides of the canvas frequently reveal images that change or enrich the perceived intent of the picture. For example in “Jake’s Place,” three ladies at the bar are vying for Jake’s attention. What the viewer can’t see from looking directly at the work is that Jake is making eye contact with a gentleman at the end of the bar. Hill teaches workshops on her method upon request.

Hill uses extensive detail in combination with often-humorous characters. A full range of personalities from proper ladies enjoying tea to elderly bathing beauties in the buff were represented in her exhibit in the campus library through February 15 of this year.

Hill recently designed her dream home and is currently searching for a general contractor to build it, and, she adds with a mischievous smile, “a tall, unattached, animal-loving cowboy with a sense of humor and a handlebar mustache…”

For future workshops and exhibits, contact Hill at (480)-963-7533.