Hilton Brown was an artist first, an educator, and a writer. As a painter and teacher of color, Brown created abstract works in the 1960's before turning to figurative representation. In the '60s Brown explored abstract and non-representational visual ideas that were heavily influenced by the Washington School of Color spearheaded by Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, and perpetuated through the works of such artists as Howard Mehring and Thomas Downing.