BIOGRAPHY

HitchenWorks Profile

As a commercial artist, designer, and retired advertising executive, I've spent the past 40 years honing my skills in the visual arts.

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I've concentrated on drawings in pen and ink and pencil... paintings in oils, acrylics.

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My work is often to do with the sea... but not always. Every idea is a potential subject and its expression sometimes becomes my compulsion.

Upon graduation from UMASS Dartmouth (then called Bradford Durfee Technical Institute) with a Bachelor of Science Degree (of all things) in Advertising Design, I went to work as a technical illustrator for a defense electronics company. I loved illustration and worked at it for a few years. My art has always had a technical character and this was a great job for me. I won a number of professional awards and eventually become Art Director beginning a separation from hands-on art production. I moved on to Advertising Manager (a good fit for my degree), then on to Marketing Communications Manager. In that job I got to do lots of design work in many fields, i.e., advertising, exhibits, corporate identity. Unfortunately for me, my work seldom went beyond the rough creative design stage. I missed painting and drawing but needed a paycheck.

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All during those years, I continued to sketch, draw and paint whenever I could. I retired in 2001 and soon started to paint seriously; trying to make up for lost time, I guess.

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I think of my paintings as illustrations of little pieces of my life and experience. Because I grew up on and in the water and have been a lifelong sailor, my subject is often nautical or water-related. Lately though, I have found myself working on different subjects. I am producing a series of paintings from a long road trip through the South and West, and it is hard to find a lot of waterfront in Arizona. I am painting kids, baseball and airports and my style is evolving, becoming less illustrational and more simplistic with a bolder use of color. It's also improving, I hope.

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Philosophically, I can only hope that my art pleases your eye, stimulates your mind and heart, and shows you our world through my eyes. Please enjoy it!