Ralph Hillbom, one of 12 calendar plates done for the Florida Department of Agriculture, Tallahassee, 1934.
Ralph Hillbom, the son of Henrik Hillbom, one of New England’s outstanding landscape artists, first came to Florida in the 1920’s as staff artist for the St. Augustine Record. Hillbom worked in St. Augustine as a commercial artist for The Record Company, a subsidiary of the Florida East Coast Railway, and the St. Augustine Chamber of Commerce. He was one of the first full time paid commercial artists in Florida. In the late 1920’s Hillbom came to Clearwater to design a Chamber of Commerce brochure for the opening of Memorial Causeway between Clearwater Beach and the mainland. Hillbom helped organize the St. Augustine Art Club in 1931, serving as first president. Hillbom was commissioned for a 1934 Florida Department of Agriculture calendar for 12 paintings depicting life in Florida.
Hillbom spent much of his professional life in Akron, Ohio where he worked as art director for the B. F. Goodrich Company from 1934 to his retirement. He was a trustee of the Akron Art Institute. Over the years he was a frequent visitor to Clearwater for prolonged winter vacations.
In 1959 Hillbom retired from B. F. Goodrich and moved to Clearwater. He assumed the directorship of the Florida Gulf Coast Art Center in Belleair in 1961, working there until 1967, when he again retired to teach and work on his own art. Hillbom was a frequent judge in West Coast Florida art exhibits.
Born: 1895, Brooklyn, New York. Died: March 30, 1977, Clearwater. Education: Yale University; in Paris. Membership: St. Augustine Arts Club, founding member, 1931; Florida Federation of Art; Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, Belleair; Akron Society of Artists, first lifetime membership; Akron Art Institute. Exhibits: Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, February-March 1961; Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, Summer, 1961, 6 watercolors and oils; Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, two man exhibit with Russell Robinson, March 1963.
