Cecelia Anne Hill Is BCAC Artist Of The Month

WINDSOR - Cecelia Anne Hill is coming home to Windsor for a visit and bringing some of her much-desired art for Bertie County to enjoy. Hill has been chosen Bertie County Arts Council’s featured artist for February. An open house is planned Thursday, February 2, from 4-6 PM at the Arts Center, 124 South King Street. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

The artist’s work will remain on display until the end of February and the public is invited to visit BCAC Monday-Friday from 10 AM until 2 PM The Arts Council has 53 vendors selling their work through the Gallery.

The View Of An Old Farm House Behind A Beautiful Field Is typical Of Cecelia Anne Hill's Rural Scenes

Hill was born in Norfolk, VA, while her father, the late Dr. Cola Castellow, was serving with the U.S. Navy. The family moved frequently and came home to Windsor to stay when she was four years old. "I feel fortunate to have grown up in Windsor. Everyone was very gracious to the young people and I had a lot of friends," Hill said. "There were outstanding teachers in the school system and I look back with great appreciation for that."

The artist attended Salem College in Winston Salem and left North Carolina to work one year as an assistant in a New York City chemistry laboratory. "I loved New York, still do. For some reason, everyone was most kind and helpful to me," she said.

After one year, Hill entered nursing school at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Richmond, VA, which included six months training at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, in obstetrics and pediatrics. After graduation, she worked in pediatrics at several hospitals. The artist lived in Charlottesville, VA, during her first marriage and raised three children. She later began working at Kings Daughters Hospital in Norfolk and remarried.

"Being very impressed with Barclay Sheaks’ work in art, I was lucky to be accepted in some of his classes. It was most helpful. My art talent blossomed under his instruction," Hill said.
The instruction was undeniably good because now Hill’s awards and winnings stretch back across three decades.

She has been called a "realistic painter whose work is characterized by touches of surrealism". The majority of her work features rural settings, but she also has painted scenes in Turkey, Spain and other countries. Her resume includes exhibitions at Virginia Beach Art Show; NC Art Museum; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA; Chrysler Museum’s Irene Leach Invitational Art Show; Salem College; Madison Square Garden Art Show in New York; Virginia Wesleyan College; Fine Art Show at Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville; Solo Art Show at the University Club in Washington, DC; a painting selected by the Department of the State Art-in-Embassies Program for the permanent collection at the U. S. Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal; New England Fine Art Institute in Boston, MA; and many shows in Manteo and Nags Head on the Outer Banks.

Her patrons include Philip Morris USA in Richmond, VA; United Virginia Bank, Richmond; Wachovia Bank and Trust and R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem; television and movie personality Andy Griffith; Senator Marc Basnight of Manteo; and Senator Joseph Canada of Virginia.

Planners at Bertie County Arts Council consider it a real coup to have this former Windsor resident return for a show and invite her many friends and fans to the open house. For more information about this or any other activity at BCAC, please call 794-9402 or email bertiearts@earthlink.net.


Story and Photos by Jeanette White