Mike began painting as a child. His mother would give him pictures to copy, not trace. She would draw wedding cakes, high heel shoes, couples dancing and never a car or truck. She had been a commercial artist in San Francisco in the thirties and never stopped encouraging him to stay in the arts. Mike attended San Francisco Art Institute (California School of Fine Arts) one of the oldest and finest art schools in America. It was during the early sixties that he knew that what had been an avocation would someday become a vocation. Eight more years of college allowed him to pursue the art of dentistry. Now with a passion for the arts and a renewed passion for realism and detail, he returned to his first love, the arts. Today his work can best be described as “Realism With An Attitude.” “I love the ability to enhance what I see with an emphasis on color and light. You will see colors that might not be so vivid in real life, contrasts that will be more pronounced, and people or things added that might tell a better story. I do appear in some of my paintings, not as a gimmick, but because many times I feel like I am part of the scene. Some of my favorite subjects are automobiles, buildings, special flowers and special people. As an artist you can see the nuances and the nostalgia that a scene might bring. You see under around and through the subjects, and you love the absence as well as the presence of objects. Life is precious and even more precious when you can recreate it on paper.”
Mike Hill’s work is in numerous personal, corporate and government collections. His work has been published in “Splash, The Best of Watercolor” in three different editions. And now in “Best of America Watercolor.” Artist’s Magazine dedicated a page to his work in the upcoming March 2012 issue. A mural by Hill is the backdrop in the Gresham, Oregon Council Chambers. He has a “Platinum” award from the Watercolor Society of Oregon for being juried into over 25 statewide shows, and he has signature membership in the Northwest Watercolor Society. “Ain’t She A Duesy” is about a contrast of austerity and elegance after the start of the depression. Plain, simple styled dresses as shown with the window manikins and a 1932 Duesenberg, probably the greatest of America’s automobiles.

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