Hornby Island Artist , Jillian Gathright, was born in Victoria, BC. in 1966. After highschool , Jill spent six years in Quebec where she immersed herself in the French-Canadian culture becoming fluent in the Quebecois language. In 1990, she returned to B.C. with her three year old daughter and moved to beautiful Hornby Island. Jill, her partner and two children continue to call the Island their home. However, in recent years, more time has been spent over in Courtenay and Comox. Her family has been active in various off island activities and commitments, such as sports, school, work and musical interests. Living in two communities has created its obvious challenges, but has also broadened chances for opportunities and experiences, resulting in the "best of both worlds" scenario.

Jill works with various mediums, specifically, watercolour, oils, and pencil. She enjoys observing other artists work and has always had an eye for detail, in fact, she is an entirely self-taught artist! Jill particularly enjoys doing portraits. She appreciates and enjoys people, their expressions, and the stories they have written in their faces. Jill tends towards creating smaller pieces rather than larger because they tend to take less time to create... and time with family is such a precious commodity! Although she periodically enjoys the additional challenge that doing a large piece presents, she generally feels that smaller pieces are more affordable and easier for people to incorporate -- she says "Everyone has wall space for a smaller piece without having to rearrange things!"

Jill other interests include gardening, music, photography, singing-songwriting (visit www.jillimartini.com), connecting with seniors, and being her sons proud hockeymom. She has done many different things in terms of 'work' over the years, but her number one job and priority has always been parenting her kids, and being mostly a 'stay at home mum'. Her pattern regarding her artwork, has been to work in hectic spurts here and there, madly creating bodies of work for exhibitions, of which she has had several. She also has worked on specific commissions and illustration jobs. There have been long dry spells in between these gusts of creativity, where life and family have taken precedence. Now that her children are older, the allure and desire to return to her art on a more dedicated basis, has become stronger. "I miss it, crave it, and visualize the pieces that have not yet made it to the canvas", she says, and is anxious to focus more time and commitment to her backburner passion.

Jill is pleased to offer her online gallery for people to enjoy and connect with her and her artwork. She welcomes any questions or feedback that you may have and hopes to hear from visitors via her guestbook.