Takoma Park, MD
Hilary Schenker is a landscape oil painter with a studio at DC Arts Studio in Washington DC. She began her career as a graphic designer and illustrator and is the founder and owner of the design studio Green Comma Media. In 2012 she illustrated the book Same Sun Here, published by Random House, which led her to launch her own design studio, Green Comma Media. At Green Comma, Schenker created illustration and animation for clients including Sierra Club, The Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, and SEIU. But the pandemic led her to the realization that fine art, and the physical creation of work with her hands, is her true passion. In 2019 she began pursuing painting full time.
Schenker paints moments of beauty in the everyday urban settings in which she encounters them. The sky is a recurring source of inspiration and connection with nature in the city. Her favorite views of sky are from parking lots and highways.
Each painting works to capture the feeling of a particular moment; a dramatic storm cloud brewing over a parking lot, a spectacular 360 degree sunset over the beltway (like in her painting 'Free Spirit'), the feeling of emerging from a rainstorm on the highway. Sometimes the painting reflects the process of translation through the digital medium of the snapshot, with lens flares or unusual lighting effects appearing in the work, echoing the digital back into the physical medium of paint. Schenker’s work seeks to understand what it means to be a human yearning for connection with nature in our modern era.
Schenker is and has been a member of numerous art associations including Chevy Chase Art Association, Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Society of Artists, and Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators. She is represented by PxP Contemporary gallery, and in 2017 she was awarded a Flight School Fellowship for the arts through the Heinz Endowments. Her paintings have been shown at galleries including Willow Street Gallery, Robert Morris Gallery, TrustArts Education Center, AAP Gallery, and with Takoma Artery. She has shown at countless juried art fairs including Tephra ICA Festival of the Arts, VisArts Festival of the Arts, Frederick Festival of the Arts, and Craftsman Guild’s A Fair in the Park. In 2025 Schenker was awarded Honorable Mention at Hill Center Galleries DC Regional Juried Exhibition.
