Jill Carver

Biography

Originally from London, Jill Carver moved to the United States in 2002. Before becoming a full time professional artist, she was a curatorial research assistant at the National Portrait Gallery in London for twelve years. Jill lives in Rico, Colorado, a small historical mining town nestled in the San Juan Mountains of SW Colorado. After establishing her name winning numerous Artists Choice awards at the country’s top plein events, such as Laguna Beach Invitational and Plein Air Easton, she has participated in premier annual shows such as The Coors and The Bighorn Rendevous. In 2014, Jill won the Gold Medal (Artists’ Choice) for Best in Show at Maynard Dixon Country and in the same year was inaugurated as Signature Member in ‘Plein Air Painters of America’. Her work is represented by The Medicine Man Gallery, The Insight Gallery, and Wood River Fine Arts. She is a popular and highly regarded teacher.

“Nature. I prefer nature’s inspired tangled-ness rather than tidiness. I enjoy the iconic intimate scene rather than the grand vista. I notice details, and change. The rotten log that finally buckled and broke under the weight of last winter’s snow; the subtle course-change of the meandering stream; the fading crescent moon that mimics the curve of the lake; the latest re-model project of our local beaver, his favorite pond being mine also. My paintings are a journal of this ongoing conversation, evidence of a process of observation and acquired knowledge rather than a concluding statement.
Painting is my spiritual compass in life. My work explores the dialogue between abstraction and realism, and I enjoy that ‘dance’ or ‘tension’. Artists should think of themselves as poets rather than journalists. I want to say something ‘specific’ about my reaction to a place or a moment in time – to capture the essence of the visual experience but not render every fact. I process any idea through analyzing it in terms of shapes of abstract color rather than content. My expressive brushwork gives a sense of motion and emotion, and allows me to control the rhythm and dynamics. By not explaining fully every fact or detail, the viewer enters a dialogue with the painting and has to complete the thought of what has been suggested. Hopefully, they are then immersed in an experience beyond observation.”

Galleries
Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery, AZ
The Insight Gallery, TX
Wood River Fine Arts in Ketchum, ID

Awards:
2014, Gold Medal for Best in Show (Artists’ Choice), Maynard Dixon Country
2009 ‘Artists’ Choice’, Laguna Beach Invitational
2009 1st Place, Telluride
2009 Best Architectural Painting, Plein Air Easton
2008 ‘Artists’ Choice’ and Vasari ‘Award of Excellence’, Sedona Plein Air Invitational
2008 ‘Artists’ Choice’, San Luis Obispo,
2008 ‘Artists’ Choice’ and ‘Honorable Mention’, Plein Air Easton
2008 2nd Place Telluride Plein Air
2008 ‘Artists’ Choice’, Outdoor Painters Society Annual Show, Dallas
2007 ‘Best in Show’, Estes Park Plein Air 2007, Painting the Parks
2007 Museum Purchase, Plein Air Easton
2007 Judge’s Honorable Mention for Artistic Excellence, Salon International, Greenhouse Gallery

Selected Solo Shows:
2022 ‘The Wild Southwest – Forces and Forms’, solo show, Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson
2021 ‘Ancient Landscapes – A Visual Journal’, solo show, Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson.

Selected Group Shows:
2022 Plein Air Painters of America, Booth Western Art Museum
2021, 2022 Annual Fall Showcase, Insight Gallery
2020 Plein Air Painters of America, ‘On The Loose’, Fechin Museum, Taos
2019 Guest Artist, ‘Along the Distant Mesa’, Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson
2018 & 2016 Northwest Rendevous Group of Artist, ‘The Bighorn Rendevous’, The Brinton Museum, Sheridan, WY.
2018 The Peace Park Show (Glacier and Waterton National Parks), The Hockaday Museum, Kalispell, MT.
2017 Two Person Show with Teresa Elliott, The Insight Gallery
2015 & 2016 Coors Western Art Show, Stockyards, Denver, CO

Affiliations:
Vice President 2017-2021, Advisor 2021- Plein Air Painters of America
Member: Northwest Rendevous Group of Artists

Publications:
Show preview, Western Art Collector, March 2022
Featured in article ‘Open Air’, International Artist, June/July 2021
Plein Air Magazine, ‘Then & Now’, March 2021
Short feature, Western Art and Architecture, December/January 2018/19
Feature length article, Southwest Art, September 2017
Feature length article, Art of the West, May/June 2015
Feature length article, Plein Air Magazine, Summer 2011
Feature length article, Southwest Art, June 2010
Fine Art Connoisseur, Sept/Oct 2010, named by editor Peter Trippi as ‘Artist to Watch’
Antiques & The Arts, 2019