Beth Hill

Beth Hill is an Alaska-based oil painter whose work explores the relationship between people, place, and the natural world. Raised in the Kuskokwim Delta in Akiak, Kasigluk, and Bethel, and now living and working in Kokhanok, her perspective has been shaped by a lifetime in rural Alaska and by close relationships with the land and the communities where she has lived.

Hill’s paintings explore what becomes visible when we slow down and look beyond the surface. Working from photographs, sketches, observation, memory, and time spent on the land, she develops compositions through repeated drawing and experimentation. Human forms often merge with the natural environment, while recurring shapes, colors, and gestures create movement and relationships across the canvas.

Her current practice examines human forms discovered within rocks and stone—figures that emerge through contours, shadows, fractures, and negative space. Rather than imposing a figure onto the landscape, Hill allows what she sees within the stone to guide the composition. These forms become a way to explore relationships between people and the land, but also relationships between people themselves: burden, sacrifice, vulnerability, strength, tenderness, and love.

At the center of Hill’s practice is an interest in connection. Her paintings ask viewers to pause, look longer, and consider how the landscapes around us can reflect something of our own experiences and relationships.