Swarbrick Banks

BA, MA

painter

About

About imageAbout image

Jill Swarbrick Banks                 

BA , MA .                                       

painter

professional since: 1992
born: London 1959
medium: Oils
studio: Cornwall. UK


lyrical abstraction
landscape
portraiture
genre

Definitions of agency and exploration of "the unconscious" by the artist

I consider myself primarily a landscape painter, although I enjoy portraiture and genre painting this is where my heart lies.

Growing up in Oxshott, Surrey in the 1960s our house was surrounded by old oaks, trickling brooks, a haze of bluebells in Spring and fox cubs playing on the far railway embankment. I was left free to roam and dream. It was a solitary but happy childhood and my loneliness helped sow the seeds of love for nature, it all germinated here. In fact I often retreat back there in my mind's eye. The Welsh would say "hiraeth" which roughly translated means "longing for" place and times passed.

My work is rooted within the British countryside; the dripping damp leaves, history and memory of place, natural wild beauty, sounds and smells of it all resonating together.
And yet, these landscapes are more about the unconscious than reality.

I consider landscape to be a portal into the transcendental, my inner mind's eye. I choose to call this "21st century Lyrical Abstraction",  it somehow feels the right pocket for it. The paintings are about escape to memory and like most memories; especially after some time has elapsed, they are distorted and perhaps strange and unfamiliar as opposed to actual landscape as we tend to perceive it.  

I mostly work in the studio in a technique either wholly or partly abstracted using this resonance of landscape rather than reproducing "as is" or "in situ" outside "en plein air".

As I begin, there is a ritual of sorts... I try to concentrate, tune into the emotions I remember feeling being in a place of profound beauty, almost trying to generate a trancelike state. If  thoughts of a particular place strongly come to mind, like being forced into a channel this can give a heightened energy rush and terrific excitement.

Surprisingly then, a painting evolves over weeks, months. Thin layers of paint gradually building space depth and luminosity suggesting atmosphere to take the gaze into another dimension, somewhere else... a supernatural place. The tricky part is to tap back into the original consciousness day after day maintaining the vibrations. Silence and melancholia are almost essential as is the "dead" times of a year; Autumn and Winter which is when I tend to paint with most focus.

Many artists have bled into my psyche over the years and it wouldn't be true to choose one definite influence on me. However, there are two that stand out and it is unremarkable that both being British painters they too loved this landscape and indeed our mercurial weather and let it affect their work too.

Graham Sutherland was the "Fire Starter". I visited his wonderful collection of Welsh landscapes at Picton Castle in Cymru back in the early 1990s and those works in oil completely just blew me away. It was a confrontation with a painter that I strongly felt in tune with. I think it was his subtle gentle blending offering suggestions of a supernatural quality using astonishing colours as backdrops, combined with hard edged gestures of actual physical forms taken directly from sketching outside in the countryside. He opened up the mysterious in the familiar for me.

The other major figure is J.M.W. Turner.
I've come to love and indeed wonder at Turner's late oils only this last decade really... It was like an enlightenment as I suddenly realised what a master he was. His work is so powerful with using so little. Small gestures can take on huge meaning on large canvases which give little clues as to how he was thinking. His ability to suggest space and awe and the ephemeral rock me to my soul. He combines weather effects and beautiful colour-ways mellifluously with such fluidity, I find myself referring back to his later oils constantly. It's like being recharged with energy and inspiration.

Sutherland and Turner have shown me not to stay safe working in one particular mode. I must keep rising, risking, experimenting and sparking inklings. It's so tempting to stay within a specific recipe using familiar anchor points because they have worked to good effect before, but consciously now I try to identify, follow sudden "dog-leg" urges when the notion takes me. Fear of loss comes with this risk and it is always hovering menacingly in the back of my mind, but I think being willing to risk - sometimes losing everything after weeks' worth of progression -  is always worth it. This approach often leads  me down a dead end but at other times... I hit a sweet spot and discover an unknown dimension. I think I learn such a lot and expand techniques this way. This is why my paintings are almost a surprise to me when they conclude. It's not an academic approach by any means, it's beyond rules.

Music has also an important part in my work. I'm especially fond of the work by the composers Philip Glass and Arvo Pärt. So affecting, minimal... I appreciate music's "parallel channels" with painting being powerful enough to suggest the sublime; this kind of music helps immensely in encouraging mood.

I stop in silence before laying out a palette, just allowing atmosphere to wash over me until I feel compelled to paint. I select sounds ( or not ) as images come to mind of place.Titles of paintings are mere trigger points to assist the viewer to focus in and join me in my original inspiration and intention. Each painting should exist in its own right thereafter hopefully resonating in its own beauty.

Despite a feeling of energy in my work, it isn't about "expressing myself", I just try to tune into an elation and when lucky, the painting suggests its own path. I might have an idea of place to start with I then let go into intuition, relying on technique & inner feelings to let rip! I sort of feel a conduit within a process, committed and compelled caught in a sort of energy source,  outside of my own body, an observer at a performance.

I only know a painting is ultimately concluded as it somehow begins to "sing" back to me, it's a wonderful feeling.





Education

B.A. Baccalaureate degree  fine art painting

(ART ACADEMY) Kunst Academie 'Minerva'. 
Ged.Zuiderdiep te Groningen. 
The Netherlands. 
1988 -1992

M.A. Master of Art  post graduate degree  fine art painting

School of Art, University of Aberystwyth.
Cymru (Wales).
2017 - 2019
(distinction)



Artist in Residence to Coventry Cathedral in their golden jubilee year 2012.
Commissioned to record the celebrations during the year of the 50th anniversary consecration of the new cathedral.

Also commissioned to paint the portrait of their leaving Dean the Very Reverend John Irvine.
Dean to Coventry Cathedral: 2002 - 2012
The portrait currently hangs in the provost's vestry alongside all former Deans who have served the new building. A portrait of the leaving Dean is a tradition to Coventry.

During a very happy year at Coventry, Jill accomplished several projects including several abstract paintings inspired by and in celebration of the 50th jubilee celebrations.

The breathtaking kaleidoscope of stained glass that lines the cathedral wings and the Baptistry Window by John Piper in particular deeply resonates with Jill; "they are pure hope personified". The magnetic draw of the Graham Sutherland tapestry of Christ profoundly humbling the moment one glimpses it entering from the West Screen clear engraved glass panels known as the 'angel' windows designed and engraved by the artist John Hutton, all these combined elements Jill will still affirm were the bedrock of opening the door to "running with the imagination" in her practice.


Career

At sixteen, Jill was obsessed with music and spent her early working years in various record shops in and around Surrey and West London. Her first job was working in Threshold Records in Cobham for the Moody Blues!
Her father Arthur, was a musician and cartographer and Jill spent very happy hours with her Dad watching him draw in his studio which was annexed to the house in Oxshott.

Jill's first steps into Art were to enrol on an elementary part-time art course run by a local artist Ms. Bobby Smith in Kew, Richmond upon Thames, Surrey. However the real spark to pick up brushes and paint came after reading the biography of the socialite painter "GLUCK" aka Hannah Gluckstein by Diana Souhami. "I was utterly transfixed at the power and subtle beauty of Gluck's painting. She was a complete maverick for her times, an odd-ball and her life and work became a bit of an obsession. I wanted to learn to paint more than anything!"

After a two year art and design course in East London she identified Fine Art as her vocation. Jill's practice began in earnest in 1988 emigrating to the Netherlands and studying for her Baccalaureate degree in Fine Art Painting at the Academie Minerva (Art Academy) in Groningen. She graduated in 1992. It was here that she discovered the work of the Czech painter Franz Kupka. Spurred on to survive long periods of homesickness for the British countryside she went into a dedicated period studying Samuel Palmer but especially the abstracted landscapes of Graham Sutherland. In particular his work based on the welsh countryside became a major fascination during Jill's decade there. However after concentrating on portraiture and genre, upon her repatriation to England in 1998 her last years have been focused on producing transcendental landscape in oils.

In 2019,  Jill graduated with a Masters Degree (distinction) at the School of Art, Aberystwyth University, Cymru (Wales). Now, living in rural mid Wales, the isolation and unspoilt beauty of the Dyfi Valley in particular unlocked her painting from a portrait-centred practice into the present lyrical abstraction of landscape and ephemeral themes. She is fascinated by the properties of oil paint and says "I never stop learning."


"Luminous and disturbing"

Leading biographer and art historian Professor Frances Spalding CBE, FRSL has described Jill's paintings as "formidable”.
Professor Spalding, in her introduction to the 2023 'Transcendental Landscapes' exhibition at Clare Hall, Cambridge University where Professor Spalding is the Chair of the Art Committee says :

"It is a pleasure to present in this exhibition a set of landscapes by Jill Swarbrick-Banks that may be unlike any landscapes you have seen before. Whether classical or romantic, sublime, or picturesque, landscape painting has contributed significantly to the history of British art, in one form or another. After the Spanish American philosopher George Santayana stated that the English are governed by an inner atmosphere, ' the weather in their souls', Kenneth Clark proceeded to argue that English weather and its soft luminous atmosphere have had a determining influence on English painting, poetry, and even English thought.

 Jill Swarbrick-Banks has not been confined to England in her choice of landscapes to paint and, though weather may be an ingredient in some of these pictures, agency has also been gifted her through the play of memory, by the inspiration of certain kind of music, and by her deep fascination with the properties of paint. Sometimes the atmosphere created is both luminous but also disturbing. It feels as if we have stepped off the familiar path of landscape painting and entered a new zone".

"
Commissions

A polymath and at home in all genres of painting Jill is also known for achieving stunning portraits as well as her lyrically abstracted landscapes. She especially enjoys discussing challenging projects face to face with clients, appreciating abstract free ranging open-ended ideas and commissions.


Back Catalogue

Although most of Jill's work is privately collected, she does exhibit when ready with a new body of work. She has exhibited many times, from in the Netherlands up until 1998 - most notably twice with Galerie Pictura in Groningen - one of the oldest galleries in the Netherlands and in the UK since 1999, most recently at Clare Hall, Cambridge University where the Head of the Art Committee is Professor Frances Spalding CBE, FRSL.


Private Tutor 
NVQ Level 7 
fine art painting

Tuition in all aspects of advanced (oils) painting; covering portraiture, landscape, genre, abstraction.
One to one tuition in Devon and Cornwall.


Lecturer and Speaker
A unique and very personal approach to fine art painting with oils. Philosophy, Inspiration and Technique.

Commissions
If you would like a non-committal quote regarding commissioning a painting or are just curious and looking for a bit more information about her current and future projects, drop Jill a message via the contact page.


Curriculum Vitae
Contact us at FOXER Fine Art


Recent exhibitions: 

Clare Hall, Cambridge University.
9th March - 27th April 2023
Transcendental Landscapes
A series of oils inspired by the Dyfi River and surrounding landscape of Mid-Wales.
Curated by Professor Frances Spalding. FRSL, CBE.Clare Hall
Herschel Road
Cambridge
CB3 9AL
https://www.clarehall.cam.ac.uk/events/jillswarbrickbanksexhib23/


The Charles Causley Festival 
Launceston, Cornwall. 
Southgate. July 2023

Southgate Arch
Exhibition of work by five professional artists, inspired by the poetry and prose of Charles Causley CBE, FRSL.
Dr. June Forster, Wayne Summers MA , Rachel Ricketts RBSA, Emma-Jayne Holmes BA, MA, Jill Swarbrick-Banks BA, MA

June 29th - July 2nd 2023, Launceston, Cornwall.

On Friday 30th June in the Town hall a commissioned painting : "Where Stone Runs Like Honey" inspired partly by the poem "Launceston Castle" by poet Anthony Vahni Capildeo ( the painting's title is actually a line from their poem ) was unveiled, during the Charles Causley Festival 2023.
Please support the festival in any shape or form to keep Charles Causley's heritage and beautiful poetry to the fore!

Cropredy Festival
Fairport's Cropredy Convention
Near Banbury
Oxfordshire 
August 2023 & 2024


FOXER FINE ART staged an exhibition of Jill's large oils at the festivals.
Merchandise also offered were signed fine art giclée prints and greeting cards of her most recent work.
In 2024, Jill's dear friend and colleague Emma-Jane Holmes joined us in exhibiting her exquisite abstract landscapes.

Boomer Gallery
150, Tooley street, London. SE1 2TU
Group exhibition titled: Dreams & Nightmares
Piece exhibited: GAZA MMXXV
June 2025





Personal life

Born London 1959
Raised in Oxshott, Surrey.

Parents: Wyn & Arthur Banks
military cartographer & author

Partner: Alie Blok.

Silversmith.
Civil partnership ( samen levings kontract)
Together from 1984 - until Alie's death in 1997
Born: Katwijk aan Zee, The Netherlands
Died: Groningen, The Netherlands
12/03/1961 - 02/10/1997

Last partner: Dave Swarbrick.

Musician and Songwriter.
Married in Coventry Register Office 6th February 1999 until Dave's death in 2016.
Born: Ewell, Surrey, England
Died: Aberystwyth, Cymru
5/4/1941 - 3/6/2016





With immense gratitude to ...

Stu Vincent, photographer
Black & white portrait photograph of Jill Swarbrick-Banks © Stu Vincent 2023
stuvincent.co.uk

Jeremy Peters, photographer
Colour photographs from exhibition @ Clare Hall, Cambridge University © Jeremy Peters 2023
jeremypeters.com



























Galleries

  • Ceunant / Gorge

    oils on linen Framed: 113 x 103 x 4cm "Ceunant" in Welsh. Slate mining has left vast chasms inside the mountains of Eryri (Snowdonia). From the 19th century, miners used to blast out huge slabs of slate inside the mountains. All of the awesome fire and danger of that industry now abandoned to the underworld, stilled now to drips of water and echoes. Original oil SOLD. (Available as giclée print or greeting card)

  • Bardo

    Oils on linen. 125cm x 115 cm. Unframed. 2020 My despairing response to Covid 19 which was raging in 2020 when this was painted. No longer available.

  • Breathing

    oils on linen 100cm x 90cm unframed 2020 Meditation on trying to breathe, trying to survive Covid 19 No longer available

  • Tintinnabuli

    Oils on Canvas 100cm x 90cm unframed 2019 Inspired by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt's sublime "Tabula Rasa". No longer available

  • Hawthorn White

    oils on linen Framed: 113 x 103 x 4cm 2022 A poem by Charles Causley. Causley a solitary man and lifelong resident of Launceston, Cornwall wrote this poem musing as an older man on his lot. After visiting his humble house "Cypress Well" one rainy dark winters afternoon. I sat on the floor beside his desk, typewriter, books, chair, and piano and I was overwhelmed by a sense of sadness but also the beauty in his eye as he dwelt on the passing of time. Original oil SOLD (Available as giclée print or greeting card)

  • Rhapsody ( Song for Ukraine )

    Oils on linen 103 x 113 x 4cm framed 2022. I felt compelled to register, in my own way, the eruption of mad violence upon this vast country and its proud folk. Amidst war and gunshot fracturing this land's every fibre, I have discovered its beauty and strength. A blue and gold flag morphs into a juice-green rhapsody which soars out above the guns and I suddenly hear the sound of a simple lyre, like a blackbird's early morning song. Original oil SOLD ( Available as giclée print or greeting card)

  • Estuary

    oils on linen 2019 103cm x 113cm This painting is framed. Travelling from Machynlleth to Aberdyfi the road twists and turns, clinging to the very edges of cliffs which reveal sudden breath-taking elevations beside the Dyfi. Eventually you emerge into a scrambled together stretched seaside village that blinks out over a sandbank strewn estuary and the searing white light of the Celtic Sea, full of small bobbing fishing boats and crying gulls. POA

  • Ffwrnais ( translation: Furnace )

    oils on linen 2019 103 x 113 x 4 cm framed A small bend in the road of a village near to the ancient town of Machynlleth. A massive 18th century waterwheel still attached to its crumbling building, which drips with fluorescent lichens and bleeding ores, orange and gold on grey stone. An adjacent waterfall thunders over huge boulders beside the structure. Original oil SOLD (Also available as giclée print or greeting card)

  • Inundation

    oils on linen 2019 103 x113 x 4 cm As flooding increases and the sheer uncertainty of living weighs heavy as an anchor on us all in Britain today - especially since Brexit - I felt compelled to convey my feelings of isolation, despair and inundation, while also maintaining the hope of sailing into calmer waters eventually. Life still thriving in the depths! Original oil SOLD ( Available as giclée print and greeting card)

  • Mallwyd ( Rhiannon)

    oils on linen 70cm x 70cm x 4cm (framed) 2019 In reality, a curious little hamlet in mid Wales nestling in the Dyfi Valley, where until very recently I lived and worked. Mallwyd translates as "The Grey Place". Here shown with the nearby River Dyfi roaring in terrifying spate, and Rhiannon, a wild spirit of Welsh mythology caught up in its violence and beauty. Original oil painting now in the collection of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, England. ( Available as giclée print or greeting card)

  • Braich Goch / Slate Mine

    Oils on linen. 113cm x 103cm x 4cm This painting is framed. 2019 The title Braich Goch can literally be translated as Red Arm. It is the name of an old slate mine seam/complex in mid and north Wales, particularly the around the area of Corris. It has left a beautiful devastation on the landscape. You feel at once inside and outside the mountains. They are now carpeted in rich green lichens and luminous turquoise slabs lying in the Welsh drizzle and moss, with the constant noise of thundering water somewhere... Original oil painting (framed). Last one of the Welsh Slate Mine series. POA

  • The Mind's Eye

    oils on linen 90cm x 100cm x 4cm 2023 Original oil painting SOLD. ( Available as giclée print and greeting card) Desciption: Purely a meditation on loving kindness.

  • Pump V / Coventry Cathedral ( dedicated to Terry Hall RIP )

    Oils on linen. 90cm x 100cm x 4cm This painting comes framed 2019. This work conveys fond memories and luminous light from my time as Artist in Residence to the magnificent Coventry Cathedral. When the sun shines through the stained glass, it fractures into shimmering kaleidoscope colours across the vast dark smooth floor, an elevating spiritual experience in itself. POA

  • Chalk Stream river Kennet at Marlborough

    #2 Chalk stream series. Oils on linen. This painting is framed. 400mm x 500mm x 40mm 2024. DM for pricing

  • Calon yr afon

    #3 of the chalk stream series. Translates as "Heart of the river" Oils on linen. 400mm x 500mm ( This painting is framed, add +- 4mm all round ). 2024. DM for pricing

  • Prithvi

    Oils on linen. 20" x 16" ( This painting is framed + approx 3mm all round). 2024. Prithvi ( an ancient term referring to the earth) is inspired by the indefatigable naturalist, broadcaster and advocate for the preservation of the natural world Sir David Attenborough. The image of an almost fossilised bird disappearing under rising flood waters gradually emerged. It also reminds me in a curious way of 'Concorde' the supersonic aeroplane that used to crash the sound barrier twice a week when I lived near Bushey Park in London. It's a lament really on everything we have lost and are losing. However, the bright colours offer hope for survival and renewal eventually. POA

  • Halcyon

    #1 In the chalk stream series inspired by the river Kennet at Marlborough. Oils on linen. 870mm x 980mm. This painting is framed 2024. Part of the river Kennet at Marlborough (chalk stream) series. 'Halcyon' was a mythical bird in Greek mythology and can also be attributed to a Kingfisher. The Kingfisher clad in its "razor blue" streaks at speed downstream leaving one in awe of its sudden appearance and fluorescent colours. Here is my lyrically abstracted interpretation of the bird zipping down a chalk stream. Although often glimpsed on the River Dyfi and River Kennet, I have also witnessed a pair of Kingfishers in mid winter over the sea rock pools at Aberystwyth. This painting has now SOLD.

  • Avalon / mystical isle around Glastonbury

    oils on linen. 500mm x 600 mm x 40mm. 2024/5 This painting, AVALON, like many of my oils, began with music, in this case Roxy Music's iconic song "Avalon". The song's ethereal qualities wash over and elevate me with every play. The painting quietly formed over many weeks to remarkably suggest the mythological Isle of Avalon. This painting has now SOLD

  • GAZA MMXXV

    Oils on linen 800mm x 800mm (This painting is framed, add 40mm ) 2025 POA "The Holy Land" Please read more about this work in my BLOG section. For more information on this piece such as sale of the original oil painting, prints, cards or licensing please DM us via the CONTACT page. Thank you.

  • Roughtor with Chough and the Evening Star

    Oils on linen. 500mm x 600mm. 2025 Comes framed, add 40mm. I walked up Roughtor with my dog Ruby in January 2022. It was bitterly cold, desolate but the sky was crystal clear blue. The Evening Star twinkled above us. Just perfect in such isolation. I dedicate this painting to my close friend, the painter Wayne Summers M.A. A rare beacon of a talent. This painting has now SOLD.

  • Afon Dyfi at Mallwyd

    oil on linen 90cm x 100cm x 4cm 2018 SOLD. ( available as giclée print and greeting card )

  • Commission a portrait

    I am known to specialise in portraiture. I really enjoy meeting the subject and discussing their requirements and wishes. It is quite an intimate acquaintance as an oil painting must reflect the personality and history of the subject, so I will ask quite a lot about you and take heaps of photographs of you from all angles. I work from photographs but I like to build up a good acquaintance with the sitter. A portrait is after all a permanent remembrance of you! Painted in oils on Italian linen it will actually last for centuries ...to pass down the generations unchanged. Contact me for a free quote? Portrait depicted: Horticulturist Lisa Cunningham - Allsop oils on linen. 2018. Approx 70cm x 70cm. Portrait of a horticulturist friend. The background blooms are abstracted blue hydrangea, Lisa's favourite flowers. In the sitter's private collection.

  • Boom & Bust

    oils on linen 100 cm x 110 cm (approx) 2008 Luthier and musician Michael Burnham with Dave Swarbrick

  • Coventry Cathedrals ( Jubilee 2012)

    Framed original oil on canvas 30" x 40" ( + 3.5 cm frame depth ) was painted as part of the Artist in Residence to Coventry Cathedral appointment in 2012 ( actually completed in 2014). I was very moved by the procession of dignitaries on the 50th anniversary, when the Cathedral hosted Anne, Princess Royal, and the Archbishop of Canterbury ( at that time) Dr. Rowan Williams plus he Dean and Canons of Coventry. The old and the new cathedrals are woven into each other and the midday light was almost fluorescent inside the packed congregation on rows and rows of seats. The procession was like a moving train through my half closed eyes and the pounding organ music added mightily to awesome effect. Original Oil £1200 ( available as giclée print and greeting card )

  • Blodauwedd

    oils on linen. 2018 (Available as giclée print and greeting card) Original painting no longer available Blodauwedd from Welsh Myth associated with oak flowers, broom and meadowsweet.

  • The Consultation

    oils on linen 2010 Mr William S. Lund ENT surgeon. M.S. FRCS. Dave Swarbrick musician ( Violin, Viola, Mandolin), songwriter. member of Fairport Convention 1969 - 1999

  • Lacrimae rerum / Angela Leighton

    Oils on linen 700 mm x 600 mm. 2024. Private commission. The renowned literary scholar & poet Professor Angela Leighton FBA. This commission was a delight from start to finish. My client has strong roots in Yorkshire and Italy (Naples and Sicily) and so immediately geology came to mind and most notably limestone pavement, so evocative to me of Yorkshire; ( a line in the poem 'A Limestone Pavement' written by Angela suggested the title of the portrait as well. The formidable volcanoes Vesuvius and Etna are of course major geological features to southern Italy ). My brief was to be as free as I liked and to abstract the portrait as far as I would dare! I also listened to the piece of music written by her late father, composer Kenneth Leighton: ' Drop, Drop, Slow Tears' and I was minded to depict Angela in an abstracted contemplative pose, perhaps in absorption of lacrimae rerum ( tears of things), the latin phrase that derives from Book I, line 462 of the Aeneid, by Roman poet Virgil (c. 29 - 19 BC). We are currently living in such flux, in turbulent and troubling times and this all just felt "right" as a title and to perhaps sum up the poet's lot to make sense of it all with eloquence and composure. I placed the central image of Angela - in a familiar to herself peaceful pose - within facetted limestone pavement cracking across the composition. The human form as part of the growth, deterioration and ultimate and inevitable renaissance of life within swirls analogous of volcanic activity. Angela's words have been very affecting and I have felt so enriched working on this commission with her.

  • Wyn / Mum

    oil on linen approx 2014 No longer available

  • RT

    Richard Thompson oils on canvas 2009 This is a detail from a painting which originally includes Simon Nicol, both of Fairport Convention. It was a project based around the 40th anniversary of FC's seminal album 'Liege & Lief' ( 1969). All original members of the band - sans the late great Sandy Denny of course - came together to reproduce the album live. I had the privilege to be able to take photographs as they rehearsed this set at the time. Available to order as bespoke print/s or card/s only from JSB and this site.

  • Mr William S. Lund FRCS., M.S.

    The late ENT surgeon who sadly died in 2010. A treasure, a gentleman and tremendous "wag"! Dear Mr. Lund, much missed. oils on canvas Approx 50 x 60 cm 2010 In private ownership of Mr. Lund's family

  • Greeting Cards and Giclée Prints

    Most of the paintings featured on this site are available as cards and prints, ordering directly from Jill Swarbrick-Banks herself. Cards come as a pack of five, its mix and/or match, you choose! Giclée prints are also available of the paintings. They come as A2 in size £85 each ( signed on request) All orders are inclusive of P&P (UK)

  • The Cropredy Crowd greeting card and giclée print

    All the work on this website is the © copyright of Jill Swarbrick-Banks and generally available as greeting cards , a pack of five blank inside cards of your choice - per pack £10, and beautiful giclée prints £85 each. The prints come as A2 size but can be printed smaller or larger and they come unframed, rolled in acid free tissue paper inside a robust cardboard tube.

  • Cân Serch / Song of love

    oils on canvas with silver leaf Approx 1995 Approx 40 x 40 cm

  • Abdij / Abbey

    oils on canvas Approx 80 x 90 cm Approx 1992

  • Courtier

    Named after a friend; Ans Courtier. Ans and I studied at the Kunst Academie; Minerva, Groningen in the late 1980s early nineties. Oils on canvas Approx 1992 Approx 50 x 60 cm

  • Ráth

    In Ireland, a Ráth is an ancient enclosure or archeological ring fort, sometimes called a Fairy Ring. Inspired by a visit to Picton Castle in the late 1980s to the Graham Sutherland exhibition at the time.

  • Celtic

    Pronounced Kel-tic with a hard C. Part of an infatuation I had in the early 1990s with The Celts; especially the tribes that once occupied what is now England. Boudicca's tribe in East Anglia during the Iron Age and Roman era was the Iceni.

  • Hydref / October / Autumn

    Painted in 1992, Hydref was created in Groningen, the Netherlands that Autumn. A shaft of sunlight suddenly grew into a vibrant diagonal across the Burnt Sienna background and I managed to outline the shapes within the sunbeam before it disappeared a minute or so later. Hydref in welsh for the Autumn & October. I was fascinated by the Celts at the time and the isle of Eire.

  • Red Tree / Welsh woods at night

    Painted "in nostalgia" in Groningen, the Netherlands after a wonderful holiday in mid Wales. Researching the entrances into the Underworld or Annwn kept me entranced when this painting emerged. oils on canvas Approx 80 x 90 cm (?) 1994 Private collection in Wales

  • Beltaine

    Celtic / pagan celebration around May Day in the Uk and northern hemisphere when tribes drove livestock over flaming embers, probably in a ritual of cleansing & or of a moment of renewal ( Springtime). Oils on canvas Approx: 50 x 60 cm (?) Approx: 2010(?)

  • Samhain

    The Pagan festival that occurs on All Hallows Eve ( Halloween ). Its a powerful time when we enter the darker half of the year in the northern hemisphere. Approx 90 x 80 cm (?) Original oil on canvas was in the collection of friends Beryl & Roger Marriott ( now deceased). 1994

  • The Hosting of the Sidhe

    After a poem of the same name by W.B. Yeats. I was reading a book of poetry at the time by Yeats. The Irish Pub: "O'Ceallaigh's" in Groningen, run by Peter Kelly and Eva Spakman was my watering hole and refuge when I lived in Groningen in the 1990s. The pub remains a unique hub of Irish culture and warmth. It's a favourite haunt for Irish patriots and British ex-pats like myself. Eva Spakman is a talented artist and friend. We studied fine art painting together at the Kunst Academie (Art Academy) in Groningen.

  • The Mind's Eye

    A meditation on kindness and calm. Approx: 1998. 80 x 90cm Oils on canvas.

  • Dan y Dŵr / Under the waters

    oils on canvas 1993 800mm x 900mm Dan y dŵr , was inspired by the drowning of the welsh speaking village of Capel Celyn in North Wales in the early 1960s. Funnily enough, I lived nearby many years later... The now Tryweryn Reservoir I always find a chilling place.

  • Hoopdiddydiddy

    Named after a line sung by Freddie Mercury in Queen. Freddie died tragcally from Aids in 1991 and this was my tribute to him. Approx 90 x 80 cm Oil on canvas 1991

  • Troubadours - Swarbrick & Carthy

    A genre painting but closer to a capriccio or fantastical composition. I set it inside a church-like interior. There are hidden meanings distributed throughout the composition. Oils on canvas Approx 60 x 70 cm (?) Approx: 1998/9 (?)

  • Epona

    Named after the Celtic goddess associated with a cult of the horse. I took the chalk hill figure of the White Horse of Uffington in southern England as the motif. The blues are an allusion to the other world. Oils on canvas Approx 50 x 70cm Approx: 2000. Sadly LOST in transit and whereabouts unknown!

Blog

Roughtor with Chough and the Evening Star

Read More  

GAZA 2025

Read More  

Avalon and Glastonbury Tor

Read More  

Halcyon - Kingfisher

Read More  

Cropredy 2024

Read More  

CAI - Cornwall Artist Index

Read More  

The Sniper Zone Rip

Read More  

Archives

Read More  

CAI Cornwall Artists Index

Image © Jill Swarbrick-Banks Title: Calon yr afon Visit the Galleries page and scroll down to read more about this painting.

Read More  

'Changing Seasons' by Emma-Jayne Holmes-Jones

Read More  

We will also be featuring our friend, the engaging and incredibly talented Welsh painter Emma-Jayne Holmes-Jones BA., MA. @ the Cropredy Festival on the Foxer Fine Art stall. Emma will be there in person to meet and greet you and to sell you her sumptuous landscapes. She will also be up to all sorts of creative workshops and happenings and getting you involved in Art. She's a much sought-after tutor around North Wales, operating out of her wonderful studio at Cefn Mawr near Wrexham. Emma joined JSB last year at Cropredy but this year she joined me showing her gorgeous work with Foxer Fine Art alongside JSB. Here is Emma-Jayne with the utterly adorable HENRY! X

Read More  

The chalk stream series 2024

Read More  
See more

Contact & sales

FOXER Fine Art on behalf of J.A. Swarbrick-Banks All the paintings on this site are strictly the © copyright of Jill Swarbrick-Banks and may not be downloaded, reproduced or used in any manner without prior written permission by Jill Swarbrick-Banks. To enquire on projects, availability for exhibitions & talks, prices of the paintings, order bespoke prints and other merchandise or just enquire without obligation about any of the content on this site... please fill in the form below. Thank you. 

  • United Kingdom
  •  Mon-Fri - 08:00-19:00

Note: THIS is the official website for the UK artist Jill Swarbrick-Banks. Any other sites that are live have hijacked old content and are in breach of copyright laws. Only swarbrick-banks.com is safe and legal. Any other sites ending in co.uk or org are NOT authorised.