Roy A. Hibbert III (b. 2003) is an oil painter based in Atlanta, GA, and Rochester, NY, specializing in abstraction. Hibbert's work explores the untethering of expectations and conventions through fantastical colors, dynamic mark-making, and unconventional approaches to painting. He is pursuing a B.F.A. in Painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Central to his practice is the philosophy "Mist into Jelly," an expression of his desire to grasp the intangible and give it form. Mist represents the elusive nature of thought, memory, sensation, and imagination—things that exist but cannot be physically held. Jelly, by contrast, represents their transformation into something tangible, malleable, and shapeable. Through painting, Hibbert seeks to bridge these two states, giving physical presence to ideas that might otherwise remain formless.
This philosophy is deeply rooted in his childhood. Raised an only child in rural upstate New York, Hibbert discovered early that imagination could offer possibilities beyond his material circumstances. Ordinary objects became extraordinary through his imagination; curtain tiebacks could become people, and seemingly insignificant things could inspire entire worlds. What began as a resourceful means of finding joy in the everyday gradually evolved into an artistic prowess to recognize potential where it might otherwise be overlooked. His imagination, as he describes it, was "as sweet as jelly."
Today, that same instinct informs his relationship with painting. Through enrapturing applications of color, gesture, and texture, Hibbert explores the possibilities that emerge when traditional expectations of representation are abandoned. Pigment is scraped, layered, and manipulated, allowing forms to emerge, dissolve, and reconstitute themselves. To Hibbert, abstraction is art in its naked form, where color, line, movement, and texture are no longer subordinate to recognizable imagery but become subjects in their own right.
Mist into Jelly is ultimately an embrace of possibility: the belief that even the most fleeting thought or sensation can be given a physical presence without surrendering its ambiguity. It is a way of making the intangible tangible while allowing imagination to remain boundless.
