Robin Hill (Born 1932) was born in Brisbane, Australia. A year later his father moved the family to England, where they lived for 17 years. It was in England, during a boyhood of escaping to the out-of-doors from restrictive schools, that Hill developed a strong love for the natural world and the keen powers of observation. These are so wonderfully mirrored in his detailed paintings of birds and other wildlife. He began his formal training early at the Wimbledon School of Art, and then later proceeded to the Royal Melbourne College and the Gallery of Art School, and he also attended the National Chafing at the academic regimen. During this amorphous immersion in painting and nature, to support himself, he worked on and of as a blacksmith, cowboy, and sheep shearer.
Finally, he returned to finish his degree in art and design. After graduation, he began his career as graphic artist and an "all round" painter, including a position with ABC. Whether in an academic setting or in the bush observing wildlife, Hill was always developing his art. He was working hard to evolve the techniques and talent that enabled him to pursue his career as a bird painter. This love of his work soon attracted other interests, and he decided to focus exclusively on writing about natural history and painting about the same. His first exhibition was hosted by the Australian Galleries in Melbourne. It was an exhibition of bird paintings and it was a critical and commercial success, and it made other exhibitions to follow.
