Drawing since my left hand picked up a pencil, the brushes came later.
Biography
She was 'evicted' as a foreigner in the early 80’s, and headed for Greece which was a total change.
Jill's painting developed in Athens between modelling & setting up a small graphics studio. She met many interesting people including some Greek painters and following advice, bought some oils.
In the words of Jill Appert, "Something hooked me to this country, not least the Frenchman with whom I wedded in Hydra in 1985".
In 1990, with their two Athenian-born children, Jill and her husband moved to Bordeaux & set up Editions Mirontaine. But regularly, ritually, they returned to their Hydra home.
During the French years, painting developed, and Jill began aikido with a passion and says, "It continually illuminates the mind through the action of the body, and definitely influences the stroke of the brush."
Today Jill Appert and her husband live full time on Hydra, where Jill paints in her mountain studio.
In Jill's Word ...
"Being a foreigner for the majority of one’s life creates a side step of observation. Being from that non threatening large island in the southern hemisphere makes it easier.
My paintings take a long time, sometimes I go back year after year, I scratch, I paint over, sandpaper, I look at them from the corner of my eye to catch them unawares. It is hard to say ‘this is finished'.
The subjects and styles are very varied in the endless search. What unites them? I hope a feeling of permanence in change, an inner calm looking out, suggesting the idea of duration. The moment before, and after, also exist within the image. Unique people, places, moments and all are inevitably linked."
Gallery
