Hilary Pecis’ paintings are crammed with details – interior landscapes that are a sort of colorful homage to contemporary living, but with a nod to modern artists. Born in Fullerton, CA, Pecis has been living in Los Angeles since receiving her Master of Fine Arts in 2009 and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2006 from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.
“In January 2014 I moved to Los Angeles from San Francisco, and that is when my work took a shift,” recalled the painter in an interview with Art of Choice. “There were quite a few contributing factors, but mainly the light here was so unlike the light in the Bay Area. I was so thrilled to make paintings of just about anything, because everything resonated a vibrancy that I was unaccustomed to. Additionally, I was a new mom and my scope seemed to be shrinking to my immediate surroundings.”
According to Pecis, the pace in Los Angeles felt slower, which in turn allowed her to spend more time looking and meditating on her setting. “The pace also nurtured my investigations into figuring out how to make paint do what I had intended for it to do. The combination of limitless inspiration, the forced slowing down, and the nurturing setting liberated me from any previous ideas about art making and it encouraged growth.”
The interiors she depicts aren’t imagined, but are based on images that she has taken. “Sometimes I see a setting or landscape that I like right away and snap a pic, and store in a cache to later work from,” she says. “Generally, they are images from my home or my friend’s homes, although occasionally I have worked from other people’s images as well. By using images as a guideline, it frees me up to take liberties, like using abstraction in particular areas when it makes sense to do so.”
Her paintings have been the subject of one-person exhibitions at galleries such as Halsey McKay, East Hampton, NY and Rachel Uffner Gallery, NY. She’s also amassed a following of more than 11k on Instagram. Here are some highlights from her page.
