22 Facts About Reba Dickerson-Hill

Reba Dickerson-Hill was a self-taught Philadelphia artist who painted in the ancient Japanese ink-and- brush technique called sumi-e.

Reba Dickerson-Hill was a watercolorist and oil painter who primarily produced landscapes and portraits.

Reba Dickerson-Hill attended Overbook High School and enrolled at Cheyney State Teachers College.

Reba Dickerson-Hill graduated in 1940 with a Bachelor of Science degree in education.

Reba Dickerson-Hill taught elementary grades in the Philadelphia School District starting around 1949.

Reba Dickerson-Hill gave up teaching around 1966 to become a full-time artist.

Reba Dickerson-Hill was a self-taught artist, with no formal art-school degree.

Reba Dickerson-Hill first learned about Eastern art techniques from Fina when she studied at the Barnes Foundation around 1947.

In 1946, Reba Dickerson-Hill was in a show to support young Black artists sponsored by the Henry O Tanner Memorial Fund.

Reba Dickerson-Hill participated in a series of exhibitions at Cheyney in 1956 as an alumna and in 1966 as a faculty member.

Reba Dickerson-Hill had exhibited at the bank before, in 1960, in a solo show of 45 paintings and drawings.

Reba Dickerson-Hill was represented in three major exhibits of Black artists in 1969 and 1971.

Reba Dickerson-Hill was one of 100 artists from around the country in an exhibit sponsored by the Philadelphia School District and the Museum of the Philadelphia Civic Center in 1969.

Reba Dickerson-Hill was a member of the Philadelphia Watercolor Club and the Philadelphia Print Club.

Reba Dickerson-Hill received a National Design Award and in 1980, the Andrew Wyeth watercolor prize.

Reba Dickerson-Hill served as a judge at several art exhibitions, conducted workshops on sumi-e and served on several exhibition-planning committees.

Reba Dickerson-Hill learned sumi-e painting from Fina while at the Barnes.

Reba Dickerson-Hill did not go to Japan until 1986, where she spent 19 days in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara.

On some of her sumi-e paintings, Reba Dickerson-Hill stamped her name in Japanese.

Reba Dickerson-Hill had the stamps specially made: One is her name and the other means "woman who loves art and beauty," she told a Philadelphia Tribune newspaper writer during an October Gallery Art Expo in 1988.

Reba Dickerson-Hill often attended the annual art expos held by the gallery.

The exhibit included ceramic-tile artwork of African people and North American flora that Reba Dickerson-Hill had finished shortly before she died.