Lopez Island artist Steven R. Hill has again been selected as a finalist in the 2017 34th Annual Artists’ Magazine international competition for a plein air painting titled “Fire in the Water” done in August 2016 along the Boise River (located in the artist’s home town) in Idaho.

According to Nicole Howard, editor of the magazine, there were over 7,100 entries from more than 20 countries for this year’s worldwide landscape painting competition. Hill’s work making the top 50 cut. Another river painting he did two years ago, “Moody Sol Duc River,” also received the finalists award in the same competition. Hill’s recognition will be published in the January 2018 issue of The Artists’ Magazine.

Both paintings were done “en plein air” (completed on-site, in natural light), which is Hill’s preferred method of painting. The dirty yellow-orange, smoke-filled sky above the Boise River was the result of a 130,000-acre wild fire burning 90 miles away, which affected all of southern Idaho and northern Utah last summer. Similarly, “Boats of the Hood” is a plein air piece Hill did just one month ago on Port Stanley on Lopez in a drifting morning fog.

Hills’ work shows locally on Orcas at Crow Valley Gallery, The Edenwild Boutique Inn and Windswept Fine Art Gallery on Lopez Island and in Anacortes at The Good Stuff Gallery.