Jill Swarbrick Banks BA , MA . painterprofessional since: 1992
born:
London 1959medium: Oils
studio:
Cornwall. UKlyrical abstractionlandscapeportraituregenreDefinitions of agency and exploration of "the unconscious" by the artistI 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.
EducationB.A. Baccalaureate degree
fine art painting(ART ACADEMY) Kunst Academie 'Minerva'. Ged.Zuiderdiep te Groningen. The Netherlands. 1988 -1992M.A. Master of Art post graduate degree
fine art paintingSchool 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.
CareerAt 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".
"
CommissionsA 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 CatalogueAlthough 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 paintingTuition in all aspects of advanced (oils) painting; covering portraiture, landscape, genre, abstraction.
One to one tuition in Devon and Cornwall.
Lecturer and SpeakerA 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 VitaeContact us at FOXER Fine Art
Recent exhibitions: Clare Hall, Cambridge University.9th March - 27th April 2023
Transcendental LandscapesA 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 2023Southgate 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 FestivalFairport's Cropredy ConventionNear Banbury
Oxfordshire August 2023 & 2024FOXER 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 Gallery150, Tooley street, London. SE1 2TU
Group exhibition titled: Dreams & Nightmares
Piece exhibited: GAZA MMXXV
June 2025Personal lifeBorn London 1959
Raised in Oxshott, Surrey.
Parents: Wyn &
Arthur Banksmilitary cartographer & authorPartner:
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 2023stuvincent.co.ukJeremy Peters, photographer
Colour photographs from exhibition @ Clare Hall, Cambridge University ©
Jeremy Peters 2023jeremypeters.com