Bethanne Bethard Hill was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the youngest of six children, and was raised in Birmingham. A graduate of the visual arts department at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, Bethanne holds a BFA with a double concentration in painting and sculpture from Birmingham-Southern College.
Bethanne, her husband (artist Darius Hill), and their youngest child, Atticus, live in the Avondale/Forest Park area of Birmingham. Their oldest daughter, Olivia, is also an artist and lives in Atlanta. Their middle daughter, Esme, is an actor and model, living in Birmingham. Bethanne works from her studio in the carriage house behind their home, where she paints and illustrates full time.
Hill’s commercial illustrations include:
cover and interior art for the CD "Bullfrog Jumped," from the Alabama Folklife Association;
cover art for the books "All Out of Faith" and “Circling Faith,” from the University of Alabama Press;
cover and interior art for the CD "Throw the Old Cow Over the Fence," by Red Mountain;
cover art for the CDs "New Book Gospel: Shape Note Singing" and “African American Spirituals of Alabama,” produced by Steve Grauberger with assistance from the Alabama Folklife Association;
cover art for the book “The Makers of the Sacred Harp,” by David Warren Steel and Richard H. Hulan, from the University of Illinois Press; and,
cover and interior art for the book “Why the Oyster Has the Pearl,” by Johnette Downing.
With regard to her work, James Nelson of the Birmingham News wrote "Nature is Hill's pattern book. She transforms sparsely set countryside elements into concentrated configurations that heighten the experience of nature."
