Accomplished wildlife artist Julia Rogers and her husband Matthew Hillier, also a wildlife painter and marine artist of Easton, will be motivating their students with two upcoming painting workshops at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, MD in April 2017.
Rogers, who was recently selected as the Waterfowl Festival’s 2017 Featured Artist, began exhibiting at the Waterfowl Festival in 1979 as a high school student and has only missed a few years of exhibiting in the Festival’s painting galleries in nearly four decades. She is the Festival’s seventh Featured Artist and the first woman chosen for this distinction.
Rogers is a self-taught artist. Growing up on the Chesapeake Bay has had a strong influence on her art. She states, “Being an artist and painting nature was inevitable. I have an endless desire to paint and over the years have worked in several mediums and gradually developed a distinctive style that is seen today in my oil paintings. Wildlife has been very inspirational to my work and is my personal favorite.”
She adds, “I enjoy reading a lot about art techniques and color theory – now I can share it with others in my first workshop at the Museum.”
In her upcoming workshop on April 22 and 23 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., “Oil Painting Workshop: Fur to Feathers— Painting Animals in the Studio,” Rogers will show students different ways to use wildlife reference to create exciting paintings through lecture and demonstration. She will use this workshop to give the students a better understanding of composition, value and form. The class will learn to break down the use of texture, color and line in oils with different applications using brushes, knives and pencil.
Rogers is a member and serves on the Board of the Society of Animal Artists and regularly exhibits in their annual show. She has also been featured in the prestigious Birds in Art Exhibition and had work purchased by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum. She is a regular exhibitor at the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston South Carolina and also attends other wildlife art shows across the country.
Rogers is married to fellow artist, Matthew Hillier, an accomplished wildlife and marine artist. After creating an extraordinary career as a painter both in Europe and America, Hillier added teaching to his repertoire. Hillier met his wife Julia, while working in the U.S. The two eventually settled in Montgomery Village, MD, where Hillier taught art at Montgomery College in Rockville. It was here that he learned oil painting, his passion.
After Hillier and his wife moved to the Eastern Shore in 2006, he immediately got involved with the Academy Art Museum. For Hillier, this has been particularly rewarding. The small classes of 12 to 14 students enable him give one-on-one instruction. He comments, “I love teaching at the Museum because It is such a friendly relaxed atmosphere and the facilities are excellent. The students and I become friends through the classes I teach.”
Hillier will be teaching “Oil Painting Workshop: Painting the Ocean” on April 8 and 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Academy Art Museum. This workshop is an opportunity to really get to grips with the excitement and challenges of painting waves in oil. Matthew is a member of the prestigious “American Society of Marine Artists” and loves to paint the sea. In this workshop, he will use his vast experience with this favorite subject to instruct the students on how to capture crashing waves, ocean spray, light through water, and above all, the beauty and drama of waves as they turn and break.
He adds, “I hope my students take away one thing from the classes I teach – to be prepared to fail so that they can learn from their mistakes. This is how you push forward as an artist.”
Hillier was the 2016 Waterfowl Festival’s Featured Artist. He is a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists, The Royal Institute and the Miniature Society, as well as the Paris Salon, the Royal Society of Marine Artists and the Biarritz Salon. He is also a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists, the Society of Animal Artists, and has recently become a member of the American Society of Marine Artists and participated in Christie’s Wildlife Art Auction. He has received numerous awards and commendations in the UK and here in the States.
Julia Rogers and Matthew Hillier live with their son Patrick in Tunis Mills.
The cost for Rogers’ Workshop is $160 for Museum members and $192 for non-members. The cost for Hillier’s workshop is $190 for Museum members and $228 for non-members. For further information and to register, visit academyartmuseum.org or call 410-822-2787.
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