PHIL's BIO & Artist Statement

Philip R. Hall has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts, and has also studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Art Institute, California College of the Arts, and Berkeley City College.

Philip has been ‘Painting with Light’ for 30 years as an award winning Lighting Designer, Photographer, Filmmaker, and Lighting Control Specialist for manufacturers, where he has also contributed to the design of numerous lighting control products. In 2004 Philip received the prestigious Sol Cohen award from the Illuminating Engineering Society for service to the lighting field.

Philip’s lighting projects include; televised visits by The Pope, the Queen of England, 4 Presidents of the United States, celebration of the Golden Gate Bridge, feature films, commercials and thousands of permanent lighting systems in the Bay Area, his favorite being the renovation of the San Francisco Opera House.

Philip lives with his wife Allison Bliss and his amusing cats on the island of Alameda, just 9 miles and 30 years from San Francisco.

What intrigues and stimulates me is how shadows detail life, enhancing or diminishing perceptions or emotional reactions to my artwork. Reality is defined in my work by revealing the mystery of an image — it’s light and shadow — through crystallizing or distorting pixels until the inherent beauty of an image is revealed.

Using my original photography or 3-dimensional scans, I manipulate my images with the tools in Photoshop.   Rather than using brushes, paint and canvas, I have a new set of digital tools that I use as a painter would use a brush; layering, distorting, sharpening, softening, bending, blurring, filtering, multiplying, adjusting, embossing, extruding, texturing and light painting. All the work is printed on high quality paper canvas or aluminum, and uses only high quality, acid free mats and backing materials.

My artwork is not about cars. My artwork is about the light and the dark, shape, color, hard and soft, satire, spirituality, sensuality and texture. Cars are simply the vehicle I am using to drive my art to the physical.