Hilary Gomes is a California realist painter that focuses on her love of beauty and outdoor floral subject matter. From visits with her family to Filoli Gardens in Woodside, CA, the beauty of the blooming roses inspires her to paint the early morning Bay Area California light. Her small-scale paintings aim to convey the poetic spiritual beauty and grace of nature. Painting roses is a metaphor for love. She is interested in the visual relationships between rose petals, leaves, light, and shadows. Her complex harmonious garden compositions full of visual movement, classical pyramid constructions, subtle shifts of color temperature, and delicate brushstrokes draw the viewer into the lush presence of beauty and unity. Hilary incorporates oil painting techniques and methods from Henri Fantin-Latour's floral paintings in her recent art. Hilary is currently inspired by contemporary realist painters Robin Cole, Laurie Kersey, Daniel Keys, Katie Liddiard, Kathleen Speranza, Dennis Perrin, Kyle Ma, Sushruta Chetan, and Richard Schmid.

The Cooper Union
Bachelor of Fine Arts, 1997

University of Iowa

Master of Fine Arts, 2001