Artist Bio

Ed Hill was born in Paris, Ontario in 1948, moving to Peterborough, Ontario at a very young age. At 20 he joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and in 1969 he found himself posted to Surrey, British Columbia. He had studied art at the high school level only, but his youthful dream of becoming a productive professional artist didn’t take shape until the mid 1980’s. Over the years Ed continually dabbled and experimented with various art form. In the summer of 1985 that all changed. Ed and his family were posted to Tofino, British Columbia where he met and befriended renowned west coast artist Roy Henry Vickers. Ed’s interest in Vicker’s art and techniques meant that the two became more than friends. The two men became teacher and student. Ed spent many hours watching, questioning and listening before ever putting brush to paper in the Vickers’ style. Only through the tutoring and encouragement of Vickers did he produce his first limited edition print entitled “Old Man”. The two men shared a great interest in the wilderness, fishing, native culture and their art and it was that association that allowed Ed to develop as a professional artist while still performing his daily duties as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. To this day the awesome beauty, power and energy of British Columbia as a landscape inspires Ed in his artwork.

Retired from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 2002, Ed and his wife Joy now live in Gibsons, British Columbia. It is from there that Ed hopes to spend many years exploring and enjoying the beauty that is the coastal experience of this great province. He plans to continue to produce works of art that evoke that special emotion that is “West Coast”. If you are a person that has enjoyed a solitary moment on a shore feeling the power of a coastal sunset, or if you have marveled at nature’s composition of blue mountains shouldering each other for position as they fade into the distance, then you are probably one who will feel the emotion of Ed’s paintings. It is that moment that Ed attempts to seize in his works. When nature and mind are singing together, they produce a magical energy inside one’s soul. Ed attempts to capture that moment in his artwork. He hopes that in viewing his works in your home you too will hear and remember the “music” of the landscape of Beautiful British Columbia no matter where in the world your home may be.