Joy Hillyer’s paintings inhabit a shifting boundary. Her abstracted images of the landscape aim to convey a sense of place, of placement and exploration that goes beyond detailed representation. She is concerned with the ambiguity of the liminal: the juxtaposition of the real and the imagined; the interplay between essence and symbol, between light and darkness; the ephemeral and the enduring. Some images reference human impact on the environment. Her more experimental work explores some of the same concerns. The Resistance series has its roots in the conflict in Ukraine.
She often uses her photographs as a starting point or as the ‘outer shell’ for her painting. These may be of the natural world or the urban landscape. Particular events or echoes of memory convey layers of meaning within a deceptively pared down landscape. Some paintings refer more overtly to the tradition of landscape painting with an echo of Romanticism and the Sublime; others are on a smaller scale and focus on a detail. They reveal a sharpness, a tension and energy that is unsentimental. Colour is as important as form.
Joy Hillyer had a career in law and legal education before taking an honours degree in garden design and attending art courses taught by Sophie Hacker. From 2012 to 2014 she attended Advanced Painting Practice at Morley College, London (tutors Steve Wright and Guillem Ramos-Porqui). After eight years in Central London she now works from her studio in Wiltshire.
Contact details
joyhillyer@joyhillyer.com
Instagram: @joyhillyer
EXHIBITIONS
2024 ‘Celebrating Regionality’. Messums West 22-25 February 2024
2023 ‘Interventions’. Solo show at Fisherton Mill Gallery, Salisbury
2023 ‘Images of Wiltshire’. Solo show, The Barnes Bookshop London SW13
2022 ‘Sundered’ Painting selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
2020/ 2021 ‘Fresh Water’. Group show, Sarum College, The Close, Salisbury. ( Postponed, then cancelled due to the pandemic)
2020 Painting selected for Wiltshire Creative Summer Show, Salisbury
2020 ‘Mountain Refuge’. Solo show, Sarum College, The Close, Salisbury,
2019 ‘Experiencing Landscape’. Solo show, Sarum College, The Close, Salisbury. 19 October - 3 November
2018 Espacio Gallery. Group Show, 159 Bethnal Green Road, London, E2 7DG, 25-30 September
2018 ‘Moving on’. Solo show/open studio 21 September 2018
2018 'Borders'. Solo show, 28 February - 17 March 2018 at Winchester Cathedral
2018 'Liminal'. Solo show, 15-18 February 2018 at Cheyneygates, Westminster Abbey
2017 Painting selected for the Discerning Eye Exhibition 16-26 November, The Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1
2016 'Counterpoint'. Solo show, Cheyneygates, Westminster Abbey
2015 'When our eyes see further than our hands can reach'. Solo show, Cheyneygates, Westminster Abbey
2014 'Into the Deep'. Group Exhibition, Morley College
2013 Solo show, Hall Farm, Lincolnshire
2013 Rootstein Hopkins Drawing Exhibition, Morley Gallery
2013 'and...' Group exhibition, Morley Gallery
2012 Joint show, Salisbury District Hospital
2012 Hall Farm, Lincolnshire Sculpture Week
2009, 2011 Salisbury Art Trail
2008 'Art at the Barn'. Joint show, Barn Gallery, Odstock, Salisbury