“My paintings can be described as traditional landscapes, still lifes and figures, but I try to use my unique perspective to draw the viewer into the world as I see it, incorporating humor or beauty whenever possible in unexpected places. As an eager traveler, and perhaps even a bit of a wanderer, I try to view everyday subjects with fresh eyes.  Painting on the national plein air circuit for the past decade has only enticed me to travel further and wider.

White boats become abstracted shapes of bouncing color.  The marsh is a complex tapestry of woven grasses and the seashore is almost too large for me to confine with paint.  Colorful street graffiti becomes a modern masterpiece set in a bustling urban landscape.

 Creating art makes me feel good.  I’m relaxed and healthy when I paint and if I’m working outdoors, with the sun shining, birds singing and breezes blowing, I cannot be happier.  I paint both en plein air and in the studio but I cannot tell you which I prefer. I only know that whatever piece I'm working on at the time is the one I am meant to create.

 Our daily lives are hectic.  I like to think my work can slow the pace, and make a troubled world feel better as I take a wide view of the chaos and bring focus and order to the pandemonium around me by squinting, and then positioning my pencil and brush onto paper or canvas.

Throughout my career, I have admired, studied and found inspiration in past masters of my medium, Winslow Homer, who tells stories with paint, John Singer Sargent with his marvelous technical ability, Edward Hopper and his brooding landscapes and the masterful Andrew Wyeth. I greatly admire and follow the work of contemporary painters John Salminen and Joseph Zbukvik.

Teaching art provides me another regular, joyful outlet.  I believe in giving back.  I’m devoted to sharing what I know with students.  I’m a believer in common sense instruction and providing lifelong skills to each learner.  I have proudly served as a member of the faculty at the re-known Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia; Frederick Community College in Maryland, and in many art centers across the USA and around the world.  I continue each year to conduct workshops nationally and internationally.”

 - Catherine H. Hillis

The artist has earned Signature Memberships with:  the Laguna Plein Air Painters, the San Diego Watercolor Society, Southern Watercolor Society, Georgia Watercolor Society, Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, Missouri Watercolor Society, the Virginia Watercolor Society, the Washington Society of Landscape Painters and the Western Colorado Watercolor Society.