HILTON, John. Nevada Desert
Item #8091
16" x 20"; oil on board; signed. Born in North Dakota 1094, d. 1983. John Hilton was a naturalist, biologist, and botanist who loved painting. Hilton's mother was a farmer, his father a baker; however, when John was four years old, his father decided to become a missionary and the whole family traveled to China during the Sun Yat Sen Revolution. The experiences and adventures of China fueled John with a vivid imagination. By the age of ten he claimed to have: traveled the length of the Great Wall of China as well as to Japan, Mexico, Canada, 40 U.S. states, and had met with Chinese bandits and philosophers. A Chinese gatekeeper told John that he was "an old one", and that John had lived on the earth before and was returning with much wisdom. Since John's parents were devout Christians, the conflicting idea of reincarnation presumably had a great impact on the young boy. When his family returned to America, they settled in Redondo Beach, California. After college he worked as a jewelry designer and a musician, while still dabbling in art. After engaging in art for a few years, he met Maynard Dixon. Hilton's perseverance, intensity, and dedication impressed Dixon, who invited Hilton on desert sketching trips. These trips included other famous desert artists such as James Swinnerton and Nicolai Fechin. John Hilton is quoted in the Arizona Highways Magazine as saying, "This is my desert! It extends through Arizona, southern California, Nevada, southern Utah, New Mexico and northern Mexico states of Sonora, Chihuaha, Sinaloa and Baja California. . . . It is a land of peace, silence and boundless skies àIt is as if nature herself set aside these vast areas àso that thinking men might have a place where they go to regain their perspective and find themselves and their true meaning." Hilton derived his motto from an old Chinese artist who said, "àAn object of beauty, the artist, and the eye of the beholder. Any painter who forgets any one of these three can never be a success." Hilton claimed this message was always in his memory and instilled in his paintings. |
