British townscape, landscape and figure painter in
watercolours.
Eric Hill was born in Hellifield, North Yorkshire in 1921,
moving with his family to Royston near Barnsley when he was seven years old.
After leaving school, Hill went to work as a painter and decorator for the
National Coal Board, where he was to work for the rest of his life except for a
period of six years when he served in the Army as a driver during the Second
World War.
It was on his return from service that Hill first discovered
his love of art and his talent for painting. As well as deriving inspiration
from the Yorkshire landscape, Hill documented the streets of his hometown as
well as the collieries that were the hub of the Yorkshire mining
communities. He exhibited in numerous art galleries, including the Cooper
Gallery in Barnsley, and he has paintings held in the collections of the
National Mining Museum for England and the Doncaster Arts and Museums Society.
A member of active local art societies, Eric Hill also
entered numerous competitions organised by the National Coal Board and the
British Watercolour Society, in which he won several prizes.
Grimethorpe is a village in the metropolitan borough
of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. Grimethorpe is located to the east of
Barnsley, and until the local government reorganisation of 1974, it was part of
the Hemsworth district and constituency.
For much of the 20th century Grimethorpe's economy was
rooted in coal mining. Since the 1984–85 miners' strike, the downscaling of UK
coal mining accelerated and international cheap open-cast mining provoked
closure of its colliery in May 1993. In 1994 it was regarded as the poorest
village in Europe.