Although best known as a landscape painter of the American Southwest, John Hilton was a man of many talents. Among his many skills, Hilton was a naturalist, a biologist and botanist, a much sought after jewelry designer for the Hollywood elite in the twenties, a gemologist of international repute, a southern California desert guide for General Patton, a miner and prospector, the author of several books and a musician. Of all his talents, he is best known as the "Man Who Captured Sunshine" referring to his remarkable skills as a desert landscape artist.
After suffering the loss of his job during the depression, he moved his wife Eunice and small son to the Coachella Valley. Soon after a friend who owned a date shop (Valerie Jean's) in Thermal convinced Hilton to open up a curio shop on his land across the street-provided he agreed not to sell date products. He agreed and began construction of a living space for his family using local rocks and his handmade adobe bricks.
At his curio shop, he sold rocks, paintings and propagated cacti, which he also sold. With the help of his family, which now included daughter Katherine (Katie), they would create items from the desert to sell such as Christmas wreaths using desert holly.
Frustrated with his painting, he was fortunate enough to come in contact with one of the greatest of all desert painters, Maynard Dixon. Like numerous other now-famous desert landscape artists of the 30s and 40s, Dixon was a frequent visitor to the Salton Sea area. His guidance eventually had a great impact on Hilton's techniques and success.
Some of the artists who accompanied Hilton and Dixon on sketch trips during the years that followed included James Swinnerton, Nicolai Fechin, Conrad Buff, Burt Procter, and Orpha Klinker. Hilton's rock shop, like Ed Ainsworth's nearby Desert Camp on the North Shore, was a favorite gathering place for the artists.
Starting with a one-man show in 1935 at Nellie Coffman's Palm Springs Inn, his artistic career was beginning to provide success.
With the start of World War II, Hilton's knowledge of the desert prompted the U.S. Army to approach him to help them locate a suitable location for Camp Young. He and General George Patton spent many days scouting possible training locations and an appropriate site for the training camp.
Raymond Morgan, who purchased Rancho Dos Palmas in 1943, reported that the old timers who lived at the Rancho at the time recounted how Patton had taken over the adobe ranch house as his headquarters. It was also reported that Patton's officers had their tents set up all over the ranch compound. The Rancho was a luxurious resort in the middle of the training area. Patton's guide, John Hilton, had worked at the Rancho during the years he was building his curio shop at Valerie Corners. He would barter for his labor and received foodstuffs and building materials from Rancho Dos Palmas owner Trudi Voss Tenderich in exchange. In 1942 the Rancho was between owners and it was a logical choice for Patton who was fond of luxury when available.
Before leaving for Africa, General Patton awarded Hilton a map of the area, which he signed with the notation "Thanks John, you saved us a lot of trouble." Before he left, Patton reportedly offered Hilton a warrant officer's position with the 3rd Tank Corp. It was an offer Hilton almost accepted. But fate intervened when he received a phone call from a Harvard University representative who wanted to know about an article he had written on his calcite holdings in a 1939 issue of Desert Magazine.
Hilton owned a claim to an calcite mine in the Borrego Badlands near the Salton Sea. When he filed the claim, he felt the calcite might someday have some use. In a top-secret program, the Army had developed a revolutionary optical weapons sight using calcite.
Hilton's mine operated throughout the war years, with Hilton fully involved in the mine operations. As a result of his years in the mine, he suffered injuries that would plague him for the rest of his life.
After several operations on his arm and hand, he traveled to Alamos, Mexico to recuperate spiritually. Alamos had always had a special meaning to Hilton. It was one of the locations where he was convinced he had lived a past life. In 1947 he published his first book, Sonoran Sketch Book. When Hilton returned from Sonora in 1948, he began adding beeswax to his oil paints. He derived the idea from a study he had read on the enduring quality of ancient Egyptian art. This medium helped to give his landscape paintings an appearance that to this day is both distinctive and unique.
Over the next few years, Hilton's work began appearing in galleries throughout the state of California. Yet ironically as financial success was slowly being realized, his marriage, which to this point had survived almost thirty years of deprivation and hardship, began to unravel.
In 1951 the Hilton's divorced. When it was over Hilton moved to a small house in Twentynine Palms. Not long afterwards he met his second wife Barbara. The two were married in 1952. As it was with Fechin and Dixon, Barbara also had a profound influence on his life. The twenty years that followed represented the pinnacle of Hilton's artistic achievement.
Barbara Hilton died in 1976 after one of the couple's trips to the Baja. In 1978 Hilton's biography, which he narrated to Katherine Ainsworth, longtime friends along with husband Ed Ainsworth (well-known LA Times editor), was published.
Hilton maintained a New Years eve tradition of inviting several of his friends to an "annual meeting" in Box Canyon in the Coachella Valley. After building a huge bonfire, Hilton would entertain the gathering by singing and playing the guitar. Then, when the clock struck midnight, Hilton would throw all of his paintings from the past year, which he considered sub-par, into the fire. Daughter Kathi Hilton recently recounted that there were usually anxious buyers for these "sub-par" paintings so they would be saved from the fire.
Sources:
Kathi Hilton-Garvin
Gary Fillmore-Blue Coyote Gallery
Raymond Morgan Jr.
The Man Who Captured Sunshine by Katherine Ainsworth
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