Picture Worth More Than Words to Hilary Sheeter
September 16, 1998, article two

PIX#1 Hilary Sheeter painting the Grand Tetons. A native of Ohio, Hilary Sheeter's enthusiasm and skill are evident in his watercolors which are receiving increased visibility and appreciation. He captures the play of light in his realistic impressions of a wide range of subject matter as shown in these photos.

PIX#2 "Disney World Castle"

PIX#3 "North Taos Pueblo"

PIX#4 "Great Blue Heron"

People and light, terrain and architecture, culture and weather. Disparate items unrelated? Perhaps to most of us, but to painter and former Fostoria area resident Hilary Sheeter, they are common elements, the tools he uses to create watercolor interpretations of the world around him.

It was reading a newspaper that started him painting even as he was in the midst of an engineering career.

"I wanted to continue to learn," Hilary said. "I saw an ad in the paper for a home study art course. It was quite an opportunity for me and I worked hard at it. Then I got into other art classes with local artists in the Akron and Hudson (Ohio) area."

Watercolor refers to pigments mixed with water rather than oils or acrylics. Watercolor was the medium used by Rembrandt and Rubens. It was not a medium Hilary was immediately inclined toward.

"I began working in oils from sketches," he said. "Some assignments were in watercolor which I didn't like at all until I began taking lessons in it. I studied with Lowell Ellsworth Smith, one of the finest watercolorists in the world. He resides in Hudson.

"Painting in watercolor was a case of working regularly at it, taking workshops and evening school classes and eventually having galleries handle my works."

Watercolor is a convenient, but not simple medium.

"Watercolor is very mobile and transportable," said Hilary. "It's easy to set up. You don't have to have rags and oils and thinners. All you need is water and a white palette with your pigments. Watercolors are just handy.

"But then they're rather difficult if you fight them. So you have to let watercolors do what they do. You have to learn to handle it, know how it behaves.

"It's not like working with oils or acrylics. It's a transparent medium. You're working on paper and once you put it down, you don't scrape it off and start over. It's best to get it right the first time.

Hilary has painted in the Grand Tetons and the Carolina low country. He's painted the bandstand in Hudson and the castle at Disney World.

But his favorite subjects are found in the pueblo country of New Mexico.

One of his most successful paintings was an image of a Pueblo Indian ghost superimposed on a pueblo dwelling.

"I paint New Mexico subject matter," said Hilary. "That's why I go there and get outdoors and paint and sketch. It's altogether different scenery compared to Ohio as we look out over the wheat field. Here it's a gorgeous flat gold with green corn in the background with distant trees and a different sky. The sky is muted, light and grayish almost, even though the sun is shining.

"Out there it's a clear, rich, deep blue sky because the air is dry. You've got rolling hills and distant, snow-capped mountains and the buildings are nothing like those here. Most are made of adobe, a totally different architecture. The trees are different, so are the grasses and flowers."

The culture is different as well. There first were the Pueblo Indians. Then came the Spaniards, followed by westward American expansion.

"They have melded their cultures in a unique way," he continued. "All this makes for a different architecture, a different way of life. Throw in the sunlight and the atmosphere, the weather, the terrain; it's just a different world which is very, very interesting and challenging place to go paint. That's what attracted me to the Santa Fe - Taos area."

Hilary came to painting by an unexpected route. He's a 1947 Hopewell-Loudon High School graduate. He enlisted in the Air Force for three years, served four due to the Korean War and left the military in 1951.

He enrolled at the University of Detroit, received an aeronautical engineering degree and went to work for North American Aviation in Columbus.

Hilary joined Goodyear Aerospace in Akron in 1963 and shortly afterwards began studying for his master's degree. It was after he got his master's that he read that ad for the art course.

He retired from B.F. Goodrich in the late '80s. Today Hilary and his wife, Beverly, live in Cuyahoga Falls and he spends his time painting and traveling.

For 15-20 years, Hilary has taught painting, drawing and ink sketching.

His experience as painter and instructor has taught him two things.

"With any type of painting, but especially with watercolors, you must spend half the time, not applying paint, but standing back and looking," said Hilary. "You make one brush stroke, then stand back and look. But before you even approach the painting, do some value sketching and work out the composition with just a pencil."

Value refers to how light or dark you want to make an area.

"And when you teach beginners, it's a struggle to get them to leave white paper white. Don't paint a photograph. The rule of thumb is less is more.

"If I can tell you just enough about it to get you involved, to get you thinking, to get you imagining what's happening in a painting, then I've succeeded. I don't want to tell you everything, just enough to get you involved and that's when you begin to look at it and enjoy it and put your imagination to work looking at a painting."

One goal of any artist is to have his or her work viewed, appreciated and purchased by others.

"As soon as I retired, I got into a good gallery in Santa Fe and that was just a gold mine for me," he said. "They've sold my paintings very, very well. I've continued to go back to Santa Fe every year to paint for 10 years."

Hilary's work is also handled by two galleries in South Carolina, one in Maine, another in Willoughby and the Reserve Inn in Hudson.

He is also available for commissions of homes and other buildings. The key is to do a good drawing first.

He was working on such a drawing near Jackson hole, Wyo., once when some folks pulled up and asked if they could watch him work. It turned out to be former Reagan Interior Secretary James Watt and his family.

The pleasure painting affords most of us is the pleasure of viewing. But what does the artist take delight in?

"I would say three things," said Hilary. "First of all, there is the inspiration, the idea or the dream, the anticipation and impatience to get on with it. The second thing I like is just executing the painting, getting to the goal, achieving it.

Finally, you stand back and look at it. I do appreciate what I do. If I didn't really enjoy my paintings and appreciate them, I would consider them failures."

Success grows from that appreciation.

"I love painting," said Hilary. "Therefore, I'm going to work hard at it. You can't succeed at something you don't love."