Art & Exhibitions

Artist Jessica Hill (interview)

21st August 2008

The room Jessica Hill uses as her workshop is full of bright paintings of horses in various positions and stances.

There is colour everywhere – not just on the five or six canvases the 25-year-old self-taught artist has on the go at any one time. There is no doubt about it: horses are Jessica’s life.

“I grew up around horses,” said the Kingskerswell-based artist. “My dad is a farrier and I used to go to stables with him at weekends. I must have been 10 when I started sketching horses.

“I would sit in the car drawing horses while my dad would shoe them.”

With an auntie in Australia who has a keen interest in horses and a younger brother, Thomas, 22, completing an apprenticeship to become a farrier, the whole family is passionate about horses.

However, for Jessica, who worked as a stable girl in Totnes for several years, the animals have become a way of making a living out of her art.

She said: “I started painting them at a very young age and I learnt to draw them in the normal way. But it’s a bit boring, so I decided to take it a step further.”

Jessica did not go to college to do an arts degree. She has a GCSE in art, but it is through trial and error and by drawing inspiration from the Old Masters that she developed her own vivid style.

“I love looking at other painters’ work,” she said. “Picasso was so different in his day. I like taking inspiration from other artists and try to embrace it with my own style.”

Jessica usually has five paintings on the go each month. She uses her hands and brushes to apply the paint on the canvas, sometime in thick layers, sometimes in quick slashes.

She likes to play around with paint and colour or wait for one layer of paint to dry before applying another one on top.

She said: “I love colour – it enhances the forms and the muscles. It makes the horses look vibrant. It enhances the mood and makes them bolder.”

Although she exhibits locally, she has begun making a name for herself on the national and international horse scene by exhibiting at shows including London Olympia, the Burley Show and the Devon-based Chagford Show.

She said: “I’ve been a full-time artist for two years. I started taking my paintings to the Devon County Show and people liked them.

“I received some commissions, and now I’m becoming known to collectors in the horsey world. One lady owns 11 of my paintings.

“Some people think I’m going to become famous so they’re buying a few or asking if I have any new work every so often.

“Last year I did very well and I did some of the big shows and sold out. It’s been fantastic.”

And she said that through her website she had also sold paintings to the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia.

She is also printing some on to mugs and T-shirts and has started a clothing line including polo shirts and rugby tops with her colourful trademark horse embroidered on them.

“I think my paintings appeal to both horsey people and others because they’re so different and colourful,” she said. “They’re almost addictive.”

In October, her work will be hung on the wall of a listed manor house in Cornwall which has been turned into luxury holiday apartments. The Discovery Channel is doing a TV documentary on the couple doing up the house.

Jessica said: “After I met them at the Royal Cornwall Show, this couple decided to hang my paintings on the walls for the final shoot with Discovery Channel. It will be great as it will give my work a huge audience.”

To take a look at Jessica Hill’s work visit www.printzbyjess.co.uk or call her on 01803 875899 or 07900 646424.

OLIVIER VERGNAULT

Don't miss a thing - subscribe to What's On South West via RSS

ADD TO: