Jill Gustavis

Jill Gustavis is an artist and art director from The United States. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Interior Design. Many of Jill’s paintings focus on an average subject with dramatic lighting or contrast creating a theme of “everyday, illuminated”. Her favourite subjects include flowers, plants, landscapes, interesting architecture, and her cats. She is known online for her sketchbook work, colour studies, and note-taking while practising.

A critical element of Jill’s teaching is to anticipate what would help a student understand how a technique works in a specific exercise and how that concept could work in any painting. Teaching for her is about both the mechanics and the mindset. She’d also love to quiet the myth that a person needs to have “talent” to make beautiful art and is a firm believer that practice turns beginners into accomplished artists, not luck. Some of Jill’s guiding principles include not comparing yourself to others and working out how to paint something yourself before you google it. By jumping straight to someone else’s method, students may miss out on something extraordinary in their own approach.

Jill enjoys strong coffee with something sweet, relaxing with her two cats, gardening, and exploring the outdoors with her husband on walks, hikes, and bikes.

Read more about Jill on her website and find more of her art on Instagram.