Artist Database

Mary Ellen Hillhouse, better known as May, was born in the Winelands in the Cape Province. She studied painting under Prof. John Oxley at the Natal Technical College between 1921 and 1926 and under Martin Bloch in London between 1938 and 1938. Martin Bloch’s colour-science research had a lasting influence on her approach to painting. May Hillhouse earned her living as a commercial artist and book illustrator, she was an art critic for The Cape Times and lectured in design at Michaelis School of Fine Art. Hillhouse was a member of The New Group, which was established in 1937 and was one of the most influential groups of artists in South African art history. In 1979 she was awarded the Cape Art Medal for Services to Art by the South African Association of Art, and in 1989 she received the Medal of Honour for Painting from the SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns.

May Hillhouse is best known for her easel paintings in oil, but she worked in numerous other media including watercolour and gouache, and as a graphic artist producing monoprints. Her early paintings were figurative and more illustrative, but as she experimented with colour and her brushstrokes became freer and more rhythmic and spontaneous, so her compositions became more abstract. Her mature works are an integration of abstract and figurative elements.

May Hillhouse exhibited extensively in group exhibitions from 1927 onwards, including numerous São Paulo Biennales, the 1964 Venice Biennale and The Republic Festival exhibitions in Pretoria and Cape Town in 1971 and 1974. Her work is represented in most major public art collections throughout South Africa.