Artist Information and Bio: Tim Hazell, Interdisciplinary Artist, San Miguel de Allende

Artist Info:

Tim Hazell is an interdisciplinary artist in the areas of painting, music, poetry, theater, education, writing and research, specializing in Latin America and its indigenous roots. His work is strongly influenced by the art of the Orient and Middle East. He has made extensive studies of Old World civilizations and native cultures of the Americas. He applies many of the principles behind the artistic products of these cultures to his own work. His background in Europe has had a profound effect on his subject matter. Folk tales and themes run close to the surface.

Tim Hazell's work can best be described as a figurative form of abstraction. The fire and spontaneity of gesture is found abundantly throughout his different forms of visual expression. His art is highly colorful, with a trained eye for the strong hues so abundant in the tropics. He works in mixed media using unusual combinations and textures of oil and acrylic mediums and glazes, frequently mixing directly on canvas. This produces a rainbow of effects not possible with traditional methods.

Themes include scenes reminiscent of tomb frescos depicting daily rural life, musicians, masked dancers, mythical animals and human figures in harmony with nature, all with a very personal approach involving design principles not found in Western art. The work is highly decorative without compromise, a feature that has made it very popular with collectors in Canada, Europe, the United States, and Latin American countries.

Hazell makes his home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He is the former Director of Art of the world-renowned Instituto Allende. In Nashville, Tennessee, he was on the faculties of music and visual arts of the Metropolitan Board of Parks and Recreation, and taught at the Cheekwood Estate and Watkins Institute of Art and Design. He has acted as a consultant for the faculty of the University of Juarez and thirteen primary and secondary schools in Chicago in the area of the implementation of creative arts programs. He has taught comparative and artistic anatomy, painting, drawing, composition and techniques and procedures at the Instituto Allende, where he acted as academic advisor in both the Bachelor of Visual Arts and Master of Fine Arts programs.

He is a widely published poet, essayist and recording artist.
Grants and awards include:

SOCAN Urban Music Award, top earning single (rap) radio air play and pay audio, Canada, 2011
The San Miguel Educational Foundation, 2006
The John Anson Kittredge Educational Fund, 2005
San Miguel Educational Foundation, 2002
National Endowment for the Arts, 1997
National Endowment for the Arts, 1996
PROCAN, best vocal work, contemporary classical, 1987

He recently (2006) collaborated with composer on a chamber music work, "A Forest of the Americas.", premiered by

Tim Hazell is available for one-of-a-kind commissioned pieces in oils, oil and acrylic, pastel, mixed media and tapestries, based on clients' requirements. Shipping of specific pieces can be done from Mexico to any part of the world.