Jill Ogilvy

Jill has been drawing and painting since childhood. After a classical training in Italy at the Studio Simi in Florence, she studied Graphics and Scientific Illustration at Middlesex Polytechnic and worked in the publishing industry for some years as children’s book designer and freelance illustrator. In the early 90’s, she established a painting school and holiday business in rural France where she developed her love for watercolour painting ‘en plein air.’ Following her return to the UK, an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant enabled her to complete an MA at Falmouth College of Art after which she returned to Cambridge to teach in adult education. Her work with different art groups included those in mental health recovery and this led her to train as an Art Therapist, a role she continues to practice today alongside her own painting.

Jill’s still life paintings are about identity, relationship and untold stories in which she combines colour, texture and pattern to create an overall balanced composition. Recent watercolour paintings focus on the relationships between objects in her studio, or the way in which the light passes through glass or glances off a ceramic jug. She also enjoys painting seascapes.

Jill has undertaken a variety of commissions and exhibited widely over the years, with solo shows in the US and France and in group shows at the Mall Galleries, London; her work is held in private collections worldwide, including HRH the Prince of Wales (now King Charles III). She is currently represented by the Eye Contemporary Art Gallery, with whom she has exhibited at art fairs in London, Brussels, Milan and Hong Kong. Jill also shows her work locally with the Cambridge Drawing Society, Cambridge Open Studios and the Society of East Anglian Watercolourists.

Artist Statement

“In art therapy, we view a jug, bowl or vessel as a metaphorical container for emotion; my still-life compositions explore the concept of contained feelings and emotions within the boundary of the vessel. The size, appearance and porosity of such a container can convey something about its strength or fragility. I often think of these objects as characters in a scene, with feelings and emotions held within, each with a story to tell.”

Website: www.jillogilvy.co.uk

Instagram: jillogilvyartist