Robin Hill (born 1932) is an Australian artist and writer, living in the United States and specialising in natural history subjects, especially birds.
[4] Whilst living in England, at the age of eleven he began taking classes at the Wimbledon College of Arts in London.
[5] At the age of sixteen Hill moved back to Australia with his family in 1949, in which he was transferred to National Gallery Art School where he was enrolled in for two years.
[15] Hill went on to study at the National Gallery Art school in Melbourne in 1949 taking painting classes, during which he won a student prize for a landscape artwork of demolished buildings in the suburb of Carlton, Victoria.
[17] During the final year of his education at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Hill was awarded with an illustration prize as well as a scholarship that funded his tuition.
[19] During the pause Hill took from his education at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, he lived in the Australian bush and took on temporary seasonal occupation to support this lifestyle.
[20] Hill developed a wide range of occupations and skills including sheep shearing, blacksmithing, cattle herding, boundary riding, fruit picking and rail road track working.
[28][29] This series began broadcasting in 1970, with Hill as the host providing observations and commentary on bird species in the state of Victoria.
[32][33] The series emphasised environmental issues of which Ken Taylor and Hill had become aware observing degradation of habitats in New South Wales.
[41] Hill also attributes the development of his artistic style to the drawings made while living in the bush and observing native birds in the Australian environment first-hand.
[48] Hill has traveled extensively during the course of his artistic career, drawing inspiration from many species of birds from countries including Africa, Australia, Britain and America.
[49] An inspiration is other artists; Botticelli, Durer, Reubens and Michelangelo[50] and there is also an eastern influence on Hill's works from Japanese screen prints and Chinese scroll paintings of animals.
[62] In addition to numerous articles in newspapers and magazines, Hill's publications include: From his experience of sailing,[63] Hill has written for the magazine Cruising World; informative columns on bird species such as the brown pelican, the great blue heron and the snowy egret[64][65][66] illustrated with original sketches of the birds.
He participated the One-Two Race event held by Cruising World in Bermuda in 1981,[67] but dropped out due to issues with the self-steering system of his Folkboat.
[76] His published works were well received; Australian Birds sold over 30,000 copies within its first week of sales,[77] and Bushland and Seashore won a design award.