Art

Look through these galleries to see the variety of Jill Ansell's work and style.

If a painting is available for sale, the price will be listed with the title. If there is no price listed, the original work is sold or not for sale. All prices are in Australian dollars. Many paintings are available as prints. Contact the artist to enquire.

About

Jill explores West Australian life and history and enjoys combining the real and the imagined to allow a narrative to unfurl.

Stories are often conjured from found objects and paintings are peopled by the odd and obscure. Her work engages the viewer with humour and warm humanity.

“I am a Western Australian figurative artist and work across a wide range of subjects from desert landscapes to portraits. I often take inspiration from inland Western Australia and West Australian stories, people and history. I like to suggest a narrative in my work.

I love sketching the initial idea and then seeing it completed in paint. When I am painting I am immersed in the scene I am creating. I don’t think of the things I put in the painting as shapes, but as real things. It is like an extreme form of daydreaming where I get to place the characters and scenery as I choose. There is often a narrative element to my painting and I am in the story while I am painting it.

My usual method is that I get an idea for a painting, sketch it before I can forget it, and then collect supporting material for the idea (photos, sketches etc.). I then work up a composition I am happy with and loosely sketch it up on the canvas. Sometimes I will diverge from the original vision as another idea seems better, but most often the work is close to the original sketch. For portraits, I want to capture something that expresses something intrinsic to the subject.

I paint more portraits now and I have worked occasionally in assemblage for the last six years. My work often explores themes of loneliness, isolation, and perseverance. Occasionally I will create a work as a social comment. I also like to capture that perfect happy still moment – this is typical of my dog beach paintings.” I paint a wide variety of subject matter as many things are interesting and I’d get bored if I stuck with the one thing.

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