Paula Hill - 70th Anniversary of Mesa of Lost Women. 2023
Turning Hollywood's B-movie stars into modern art....a new tribute by expressionist artist Stephen B. Whatley to Hollywood film and TV actress Paula Hill (1926-2000) ; inspired by photographs of her playing 'Doreen' in the surreal sci-fi movie, Mesa of Lost Women (USA 1953) - which was released 70 years ago.
When life allows, the artist likes to make iconic portraits inspired by his great interest in the often more obscure players from Hollywood's Golden Age.
The portrait tribute was predominantly painted on Paula Hill's birthday February 15 and completed yesterday.
A minister’s daughter from Birmingham, Alabama - who suffered the loss of her father at 5 and her older protective brother at 12 - Paula Hill is most known to film buffs as the blonde lead of Mesa of Lost Women (1953). She was credited as Mary hill - as she was in several other early 1950s pictures including Outlaw Women (1952) and Models Inc (1952).
She had smaller roles in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), The Greatest Show On Earth (1953) & Hot Cars (1956) & in many other films .
Paula Hill was prolific on TV in the 1950s in such series as Dragnet, Mike Hammer , Mr & Mrs North, The Man Called X & Burns & Allen.
Striking in beauty, talented and possessed of a velvet voice, she never got the bigger breaks in the film industry - but Whatley champions her, is researching her life and celebrating her posthumously through his art - humbly hoping to give her the limelight he feels she deserved.
A heavy smoker all her life, Paula Hill sadly passed away from a stroke on her 74th birthday in 2000.
Paula Hill : 70th Anniversary of Mesa of Lost Women. 2023
oil on canvas, 20 x 16in/ 51 x 42cm
Paula Hill - 70th Anniversary of Mesa of Lost Women. 2023
Turning Hollywood's B-movie stars into modern art....a new tribute by expressionist artist Stephen B. Whatley to Hollywood film and TV actress Paula Hill (1926-2000) ; inspired by photographs of her playing 'Doreen' in the surreal sci-fi movie, Mesa of Lost Women (USA 1953) - which was released 70 years ago.
When life allows, the artist likes to make iconic portraits inspired by his great interest in the often more obscure players from Hollywood's Golden Age.
The portrait tribute was predominantly painted on Paula Hill's birthday February 15 and completed yesterday.
A minister’s daughter from Birmingham, Alabama - who suffered the loss of her father at 5 and her older protective brother at 12 - Paula Hill is most known to film buffs as the blonde lead of Mesa of Lost Women (1953). She was credited as Mary hill - as she was in several other early 1950s pictures including Outlaw Women (1952) and Models Inc (1952).
She had smaller roles in The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), The Greatest Show On Earth (1953) & Hot Cars (1956) & in many other films .
Paula Hill was prolific on TV in the 1950s in such series as Dragnet, Mike Hammer , Mr & Mrs North, The Man Called X & Burns & Allen.
Striking in beauty, talented and possessed of a velvet voice, she never got the bigger breaks in the film industry - but Whatley champions her, is researching her life and celebrating her posthumously through his art - humbly hoping to give her the limelight he feels she deserved.
A heavy smoker all her life, Paula Hill sadly passed away from a stroke on her 74th birthday in 2000.
Paula Hill : 70th Anniversary of Mesa of Lost Women. 2023
oil on canvas, 20 x 16in/ 51 x 42cm