Hilary McCarthy is a contemporary figurative painter living in Laguna Beach. She is currently adjunct faculty in the Fine Arts Department at Laguna College of Art and Design. Before that she lived in NYC for 18 years. Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries in the United States and Europe. She has studied at Harford Art School, The Art Students League, New York Academy of Art and Columbia University. She has attended art residencies in Puglia Italy; Victoria, Australia; Leipzig, Germany, and Johston, Vermont.

As a subject in my art, The ocean is timeless and seemingly endless. It existed before we did. It is wiser than we are. (Reverence) We do not own it and if anything it owns us. When meditating on it’s vastness it guides me toward a bigger picture mindset I seek from Buddhist teachings. It helps me see life in terms of limitless possibilities and the world as a collective consciousness as a whole.  Because it lets me reach that place of freedom it is a constant metaphor in my paintings. It’s unpredictability is also a metaphor for life.  Sometimes rocky and other times tranquil.

The women I paint in the foreground deal with the messy complexities of the human condition. In the background, the ocean forms a vast rhythmic backdrop.

The narrative of the painting tests these two interfaces.

Hilary lives and works in Laguna Beach, CA