"RISE!" Painting

James Christopher Hill

I’m a Fine Artist. I sketch and paint traditional Fine Art from Figure to Landscapes, Skyscapes as well as I’m a Conceptual Designer and Concept Artist, Illustrator, and Cover artist. I was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and over the years with hard work and persistence, I have gained an international following for my paintings from fans and collectors. I’m best known for painting my landscapes and skyscapes filled with vibrant color, swift movement, and radiant energy in a contemporary stylistic language. My work explores the use of color and rhythm to create powerful, sweeping images that seek to provoke a particular mood or emotion by capturing an exact moment or memory in time that is meaningful to both him and the viewer. My work has been featured in various articles, magazines, and television show interviews. Still, I work every day to try to expand my knowledge and my talents through the study of the great Masters of art throughout the ages with traditional methods and keeping up with the times, with Computer Art and Animation

As a professional artist in my early twenties, after owning my own Art Gallery for a year, in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, learning the business of art, I decided to acquire formal training at the prestigious Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida beginning in 1994. Four years later, in 1998, I graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Computer Animation; a field that while at Ringling, focused mainly on the understanding and discipline of master drawing and painting skills of the human figure.

My senior thesis entitled "Jataka" took home the Gold Oscar in the category of Best Student Computer Animation in 1998 from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It was the first OSCAR Ringling received. In 1999, after working exhaustingly as a retail store designer for major world-renowned stores including Macy’s and Lord and Taylor. The hours exhausted me along with the extreme stress, so after one year, I resigned, and I returned to the world of fine art. Since then, my work has been shown in numerous galleries in the Southeast and had two gallery openings in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, New York where my work was well received. I’ve won numerous art awards in both fine art and computer animation. I served as vice-chair for both city art councils and art guilds in various sub cities of Charleston, SC.