The Work of Hilda Spain-Owen

Winston-Salem

“Don’t do what has been done before”
     Hilda Spain-Owen

"Early in my painting career, I painted a 4x4 canvas of a whippet on a ball with circus tents in the background. I put the quote, in French, “Don’t do what has been done before” across the painting as a design element. I didn’t know how prophetic that was. When I’m at my best, I’m not doing what anybody else does. When I’m doing what everybody else does, I’m bored and my work is mediocre."

It’s obvious when you see Hilda’s pieces that they are different than anything you have seen before. Her abstract backgrounds and unique textures are very original in nature, as well as how she depicts her Whippet portraits or other subjects.

When Hilda was 5 she was coloring in her coloring book and her Father leaned over and said “My land! She can color!” At that point she realized in her heart that she was an artist, but it wasn’t until about 10 years ago when her brain said the same. It actually took that mental shift before she could get going as an artist.

“Each painting is a story for me. There is a quote by Eudora Welty that says, 'There are no stories until there are two stories.' I am one story and the second story is the painting. When I do a commission of a dog, I go to the home and take photographs. I want to know the dog in its surroundings. I want to see the home they live in and try to bring my story, my technique to realize the vision that the owner has for the final product. I look for a story. I love the stories dogs tell. In a dog, it could be about posture, the turn of the eye, the accentuation of line, as in the whippets I paint. I take hundreds of photos of a subject before I feel that I have found the story."

Her dog paintings are life size or larger, the size carries a lot of impact and power. Her backgrounds have more of a contemporary art feel . Even though they are dog portraits they look like a piece of art. She has clients who buy her dog paintings or who buy a breed they don’t own. “Then I’m sure they see my art beyond the subject,” she says.

Her style developed as an untrained artist. She wanted big pieces to hang in her house and would use palette knives and plastic scrapers to get the pieces done quickly. She still layers intensely but now uses different colors than when she first began. Her style is looser with her gallery work than her commissions.

Hilda always tries to have a destination for her work and encourages all artists to do the same. She advises them to read the book “Art and Fear” by David Bayles and Ted Orland. The subtitle is “Observations on the Perils (and rewards) of Artmaking”. She said she cried when she read it the first time and found it a relief to admit she was scared to death and be okay with that. She also says “The book points out that most artists, even those who are college trained, stop painting when they lose a destination for their work. Therefore, create destinations for your work even if it’s giving an Arty Party and inviting your artist type friends over to bring a piece of work to discuss. Yes, I did that. My path went like this: getting accepted in the juried shows, placing in the shows; creating my web presence and then getting into galleries. I love this quote from Art and Fear: 'The artist’s life is frustrating not because the passage is slow, but because he/she imagines it to be fast.'

Hilda believes an artist’s job is to create art, whether it be painting, photography, writing, etc. and if you are doing that, the rest of it will get done. Lastly, she says “Do the work that pleases you”



The work of Hilda Spain-Owen will be on display in a group exhibition called “Surfacing” at Gateway Gallery (1006 S. Marshall Street, Winston-Salem) with an opening reception on Friday, January 22, from 6:00-8:30pm. The exhibition will feature pottery by Valarie Williams, encaustic paintings by Nadine Buckinger and oil and acrylic paintings by Hilda Spain-Owen and Judy Stead. The exhibition will be on display through March 20. For more information about the work of Hilda Spain-Owen or for commissions please visit www.whippetart.com.