Montecito Magazine Spring 2019

66 Montecito Magazine Spring–Summer 2019 she worked in pastels. “Traveling with oils is not easy,” she says with a smile. And travel she did. She lived for a time in France, working as an au pair and taking French classes. She also studied Italian language and culture at the University of Genoa and traveled extensively throughout Europe. “I went to all the museums I could,” she says. “In Venice and Nice I would set up my easel and paint on a street corner.” Hilda has taken a spattering of art classes over the years, picking up valuable skills and techniques from each teacher. While attending an import- export school in Lima, she studied with Peruvian pastel artist Teresa Suárez Vertiz, and later took lessons from painter and sculptor Marcia Cum- mings and the late illustrator Glen Orbik at the California Art Institute (now closed) in Th usand Oaks. “With Marcia Cummings, I honed my abili- ties in depicting perspective, and with Glen Orbik, I learned to incorporate the human figure into my paintings,” Hilda notes. “I started painting seriously when I moved here,” says Hilda, “then I really got hooked!” She works full-time as an executive assistant, draws sketches after work and paints on the weekends. over artist Hilda Kilpatrick-Freyre is a visual storyteller whose joyful work is a pictorial chronicle of a changing landscape. Growing up in her native Peru, Hilda was sur- rounded by art. “We lived close to the equator near the beach,” she says. “We later moved to a sugar cane plantation, and then to Trujillo, a colonial city with lots of art and traditional colors—lapis, terracotta, oranges and the bright yellow Trujillo Cathedral.” That sense of energetic color is evident in Hilda’s work, which now depicts the natural beauty of California. “I am constantly inspired by nature and its won- derful vibrant colors,” she says. Hilda’s warmth- infused work reflects her fresh painterly approach, loose brushwork style and sunny palette. In describ- ing her process, Hilda says, “I paint a terracotta wash on the canvas first. I really like orange and all the earth tones. I start at the top with the sky—that’s what sets the tone. When I moved to Southern Cali- fornia I couldn’t believe how blue the sky was and how bright everything was. In Lima, there is very little rain and the trees are not as green. I’m so inspired by the California scenery.” Until Hilda moved to California 20 years ago, Cover Artist… By Nancy Ransohoff • Art by Hilda Kilpatrick-Freyre Storyteller Inspired by Nature Landscape Painter Hilda Kilpatrick-Freyre C PHOTO BY DINA@DINAPIE.ORG

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