Education

Jill graduated from the Roehampton Institute in 1995 after studying for a BA in Art in a Community Context and French. She specialised in printmaking and produced a public commission for the Wells NHS Trust and studied Art Therapy in Paris as part of her degree.

She followed her BA with a PGCE in Art and Design at Brighton University and spent the next 15 years teaching Art in state secondary schools in Sussex and Kent.

In 2011 she completed a part time Masters in Fine Art at Canterbury Christ Church University.

Art Practice

She now lives and works in Cliftonville, Margate, where she has a studio, not far from her native town of Ramsgate. She divides her time between her creative practice and teaching therapeutic yoga.

During her undergraduate studies she had the chance to explore printmaking, painting and ceramics. She still uses these techniques, combining processes across disciplines when exploring ideas for 2D and 3D work. Her ideas predominately develop from being outside in nature and travelling. Jill relishes the opportunity to escape and witness the art of different cultures. She loves the colours of Mexico and Italy’s rich cultural history.

Jill uses sketchbooks to document her discoveries and experiences. Drawing has an immediacy to it and allows for a freshness of mark, colour and gesture. Drawings become simplified to encapsulate the essence of a subject. Jill will be drawn to an aspect of a place or an object, deepening her investigations through repeated visits and studies to inform a series of work on her chosen theme.

Jill takes an active part in community art events, exhibiting regularly with local artists and hosting artists’ open studios as part of East Kent Open Houses from her home studio.

She has an appetite to keep learning and deepening her subject knowledge; most recently attending courses on plaster mould making, casting and surface decoration/print-making on clay.