Helen Hill (1899-2004) Impressionist Landscape

Helen Hill (1899-2004)
Impressionist Landscape

Colorful, striking impressionist landscape by listed American artist Helen Hill.

Helen Cozens Hill was born in Encinitas, California on January 15, 1899. In her early years her parents moved to La Jolla where her Father ran a Grocery Store on Girard. She attended San Diego High School. In her young adult years she gave violin recitals locally, and for a time had her own radio show performing with her long time friend, Edith Deggendorf. In addition to her painting, she wrote fiction stories that were sold to national magazines. In 1923 she married Delbert Hill.

She began painting in the early 1930's while living in Burlingame, California. She worked in oils, acrylics, watercolors, and collage. She took frequent trips to Borrego Springs, the Sierras and Sedona, Arizona to capture images for her landscape works.

Hill was a member of, and exhibited at, the Foothills Gallery in La Mesa (home to the Foothills Art Association), the La Jolla Art Association, and the San Diego Art Institute.
She sold her landscape paintings throughout California.

The onset of macular degeneration caused Hill to end her painting career in 1980. Hill and her friend Deggendorf, participated in a lengthy study of centenarians at the Harvard Medical School in 1999. Helen Hill died on her 105th Birthday in San Diego, California on January 15, 2004.


Biography written and submitted February 2004 by Gary Stanley/ArtSanDiego