About
Jim Hillegass is a native of Nebraska. He's lived in Minnesota for nearly
40 years. A childhood interest in nature, encouraged by his mother, taught
him to look closely. He looked at butterflies and bugs, and at farms around
Lincoln.
College years were spent near New York City, and Jim spent many weekends
looking at architecture, and at art at the Met, MOMA, and other places.
He was a casual watercolorist and illustrator from the time he graduated
from college and headed west to California. The illustrations were often
architectural or botanical.
Several things have influenced his painting. At 50, he learned to sail
on Lake Minnetonka, then did a little ocean sailing with friends in
Holland and in the Caribbean. At 60, he learned to fly. After getting
a pilot's license and an instrument rating, he began making cross
country trips, first in rental aircraft, then in two planes he owned.
He covered a lot of ground over the next few years.
Jim has always had a passion for the West. In 2002, he bought a small
ranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska, which surprisingly look a little
like Cape Cod. It's pasture for cows in the summer. It has a nice
woods bordering the Niobrara River.
These pastimes gave Jim a deep appreciation of landscapes and of the
horizon.
When he began to paint more seriously, he thought he most admired
Mark
Rothko. This led to a lot of experimentation with color.
Jim paints under a skylight in an old warehouse. He usually listens to jazz, often
Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, or Django Reinhardt. He sometimes thinks
of other painters like
Pierre Bonnard or
Gerhard Richter or
Richard Diebenkorn.
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