Oil painter Hilarie Lambert will tell you she enjoys painting the familiar: vintage toys, notable architecture, or coastal scenes, but nothing about her work is “ordinary.” Through the filter of light in an egret’s wings in flight, or the way a newspaper crumbles under just-caught blue crabs, Hilarie reveals the beauty in what we might have forgotten or gotten too busy to notice – the magic of the every day.
Although Hilarie has won numerous awards, what keeps her painting is her fascination with the process. “I just want to be the best painter I can be,” she says, and she means it, painting prolifically in the studio and out on location - covering subjects as diverse as she is. Her commissions range from landscapes to portraits.
The worlds in Hilarie’s paintings are seen through her sense of humor and love of whimsy. She paints the rainy day in Paris, not the sunny one, the forgotten radio on the shelf, or the boy feeding pigeons in St. Mark’s Square (instead of the majestic basilica), all illustrating her joy in the edges of things, the side streets, the back doors. The paint is laid down in what seems to be quick, loose, but strong brush strokes usually with a very generous amount of paint. This style gives the viewer a definite sense of the artist’s hand and vision at work in the finished piece, and deepens the feeling of connection between subject, artist and viewer.
A former graphic designer, and illustrator from the Finger Lakes of New York, Ms. Lambert has studied under Burton Silverman, Kim English, Scott Burdick, and Judy Carducci. She travels extensively in Italy and France, where she paints and visits family. She lives in Charleston, S.C. and has two children – Casey, a brewmaster in Tampa, and Samantha, a blogger in Paris.
Hilarie is an Associate Member of The Oil Painters of America, the Portrait Society of America, and American Women Artists. She recently has been featured in Charleston Style & Design and was awarded First Place at Piccolo Spoleto.