Ralph Hilton

For most of his life art has been a primary means of expression for Krishna Ralph Hilton. When his college studies in math and philosophy left him with a desire to seek a more deeply fulfilling life path he discovered that art, and at the time, acrylic painting, could be a doorway to his inner psyche. In 1974 he began a meditation and yoga practice that would become the central focus of his life. In that year he was also hired as an art instructor at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, a position he held until 1979. During this time his paintings in acrylic were shown in local galleries and won prizes in Bay Area exhibitions. In 1979 he opened the Arati Store in Oakland and throughout most of the 1980’s he traveled back and forth to India. In 1988 he settled in the New York Catskills, recreating the Arati Store where it continues to flourish today. Here he picked up his relationship to his art, now in soft pastels—a medium of pure color.

Krishna’s paintings speak to an inner balance and harmony in a joyful alchemy of color and form. Each work possesses a unique animation that comes alive inside the viewer. His intimate works are at once objects of personal meditation and universal transcendence.