After turning to art as a second career in 2003, Fairfax VA artist Jill Banks dove in head first and has been up to her elbows in paint ever since. Banks paints like a pig eats. (Voraciously.)
Her life as a painter is far from dull. (Very far.)
Have Easel, Will Travel
She's set up her easel in towns all across the country and closer to home. Spent three days in her NYC hotel room shower equipped with floor to ceiling capturing sunrise to sunset in the city. Painted along the Seine in Paris.
Days are filled with one adventure after another, exploring places, enjoying meeting the people in them, capturing the world as she finds it at that moment. She lives outside of her comfort zone and likes it there.
Flowers and City Streets
As a "city girl", having lived on the outskirts of Chicago, New York, and now Washington, D.C., Banks loves the energy and pulse of city life and sees beauty in people, urban places and manmade things. Her street, market and restaurant scenes bring that bustle to life. Having had a florist in the family (her mom, dad and grandmother once owned flower shops) influences her art, too. Banks' life has been filled with beautiful tablescapes her Dad sets that make each day seem like a celebration. No wonder she gravitates to painting still life subjects with saturated color, and finds joy in everyday moments and things. They are something to celebrate!
100 Faces in 100 Days
In 2011, Banks launched her 100 Faces in 100 Days Project, inviting local friends and strangers of all ages to sit to have their portraits painted, allowing her to get to know her sitters and allowing her sitters to get to know more about her passion - painting - in the process. For the first 100 consecutive days of 2011, Banks painted 100 different faces from life and posted photos of the paintings and reflections on the sitter and sitting on her blog. Her 100 Faces Project was exhibited in multiple venues starting in May 2011. Those paintings and excerpts from her 100 Faces blog post can be seen in the 100 Faces in 100 Days collection under Works on this site.
Banks has won many awards including three Best of Show awards at the Art League, an Honorable Mention of Artistic Excellence at Salon International, a Certificate of Merit in Oils at the Salmagundi Club, two memorial awards at the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club Annual Juried Exhibition (2013 and 2008) at the National Arts Club, placing three times as finalist in the Artists' Magazine's Annual Art Competition, First Place in Paint Herndon! and two Best of Shows at artReston. She was twice awarded Strauss Fellowship grants by the Arts Council of Fairfax County (VA).
Her work was featured on the cover of élan Magazine in April 2011 and May 2006. Banks' paintings have also appeared inAmerican Art Collector, Southwest Art, Fine Art Connoisseur, the Washington Post, Virginia Living, Spaces Magazine, and VivaTysons. She works out of the studio she shares with 14 other artists, the Artists' Atelier, 1144 Walker Rd., Suite G, Great Falls, VA. (www.GreatFallsAtelier.com, open Wednesdays and Saturdays, noon to 4pm)
She teaches workshops and classes in Northern Virginia through the Great Falls School of Art (Great Falls, VA) and August 3-10, 2014 Banks taught her first International workshop, Paint in Italy, in the wine region of Piemonte.
Banks started painting in 2003 after retiring from the marketing communications business she founded and managed for 16 years. She studied with master artists Danni Dawson, Robert Liberace and Nelson Shanks . Her work is exhibited nationally, has garnered many awards and is in collections throughout the US and beyond.
Highlights - Year by Year
2014:
- Two trips, 28 days in Italy -- painting in Florence and Venice, teaching and painting in the Piemonte. Nice life!!!!
- The year of taking my art on the road -- participating in juried outdoor art festivals in Westhampton NY, Westport CT, Wickford RI, Pittsburgh PA (Shadyside), Armonk NY, Alexandria VA (King Street Art Festival), McLean MPA Artfest ... probably more. Learned (Randy would say, sort of) how to put up a complicated and gorgeous tent creating a gallery on the go.
- Painted my way through two plein air events -- Mountain Maryland Plein Air (juried) and Paint the Shenandoah (invitational). Loved it!
2013:
- Teaching plein air painting ... to an enthusiastic band of artists merrily battling bugs, breeze, temperatures etc. in varied spots around the DC area. Joyful Wednesdays.
- Painting on the streets of Paris. Daunting to set up the easel in this city famed for its plein air pioneers. Did it anyway.
- Chosen as a juror of selection for the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club's 117th Annual Open Exhibition held at the National Arts Club in October. Nice honor and enlightening to boot.
- Shared Awards Juror duties with Lori Goll for the Paint Herndon! competition -- that coincided with our five-artist group exhibit "Menagerie" held at ArtSpace Herndon in September.
- Quite a few neat awards. See my resumé for details.
2012:
- Juried into the Visiting/Guest Resident Artist Program at the Torpedo Factory for August 2012 -- working and demo'ing in Studio #333 for the month. It was a fun, different time -- spent interacting with visitors from around the world and gaining some new fans.
- Tackling the challenges of plein air painting ... painting in and around Hilton Head and Beaufort, SC, in the glass shower and on the balcony of a hotel room in NYC, on farms in Maryland and Virginia. Juried into and competed in Wayne Plein Air, one of the top plein air competitions in the country, painting in and around Wayne and Philadelphia, PA for four and a half days. Awarded First Place in Paint Herndon Plein Air Competition.
2011:
- Most significant, I launched my 100 Faces in 100 Days project on January 1. Read about each day on my blog:jillbanks.blogspot.com, January 1 through April 10 posts. This is my most massive and wonderful project to date. I painted my 100th face on April 10 ... day 100. My 100 Faces were on exhibit May 2011 at the Great Falls Library, 9830 Georgetown Pike, Great Falls, VA and in August 2011 at the Gallery in the Artists' Atelier, 1144 Walker Road, Suite G, Great Falls, VA. My "100 Faces in 100 Days" exhibit reception in May was named Gallery Opening of the Week by the Washington Post, Weekend Section, p. 30, May 6, 2011.
- Awarded a second Strauss Fellowship grant by the Arts Council of Fairfax County.
- "Tranquility" won an Honorable Mention at Salon International at the Greenhouse Gallery in San Antonio, TX. Daniel Greene was the awards juror.
- "Pretty Girl Hen" chosen as one of only 75 finalists in the Richeson75 Animal, Birds and Wildlife International Online Competition.
- Purchase Award, Out & About Norfolk Plein Air Competition for "Elephant at the Norfolk Zoo"
- Raymar Art Award, Out & About Norfolk Plein Air Competition for "Fountain at the Chrysler Museum"
- First Place, Reston Century T-Shirt Art Competition sponsored by ArtSpace Herndon
- Best in Show, Great Falls Studios "Birds of Great Falls" Exhibit
2010:
- 2010 has been a year that collectors truly embraced my work. 31 original paintings and drawings were purchased in December and I don't honestly know how many were purchased for the year. Suffice it to say, that I couldn't keep track and that plenty of my art found new homes. Exciting and a bit scary. Like I need to paint, paint, paint.
- "Rainy Day in NYC" won Best in Show in the Art League's August 'Scapes (landscape) Show AND a Certificate of Merit in Oils at the Salmagundi Club's Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibition in July
- Won Best in Show in the artReston Annual Juried Exhibition, June 2010, Reston, VA
- Third time placing as a finalist in the Artist's Magazine's Annual Art Competition -- this time in the Landscape category
- First time being juried into Salmagundi Club's Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, Salmagundi Club, NYC, July 2010 (won an award, too -- see above)
- Second time being juried into Salmagundi Club's Open Annual Photography and Graphics Exhibition, Salmagundi Club, NYC, June 2010
- Second time being juried into the Biennial Art Exhibition in Punta Gorda, FL. Accepted by jury into more and more national shows.
2009:
- Juried into Allied Artists of America's Annual Exhibition 2009 (National Arts Club, NYC, November 2009)
- Juried into Grand National 2009 (American Artists Professional League, Salmagundi Club, NYC, November 2009)
- Juried into Salon International 2009 (Greenhouse Gallery, San Antonio, TX, March 2009
- Exhibited at Chelsea 32 Gallery in New York City (January through June 2009)
- Juried into Salmagundi Club's Open Annual Exhibition (Salmagundi Club, NYC, June 2009)
- Juried into MPA Artfest 2009 (McLean Project for the Arts outdoor juried festival, October 4)
2008:
- Awarded Strauss Fellowship grant by Arts Council of Fairfax County;
- Won Casey Memorial Award at the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club's Annual Open Juried Exhibition held at the National Arts Club in NYC;
- Won Best of Show at the Art League for second time;
- Finalist in Artist's Magazine's Annual Competition for the second time;
- Represented by Chasen Galleries in Richmond, VA;
- Joined faculty at Loudoun Academy of the Arts and Great Falls Foundation for the Arts.
Jill Banks with 27 of her 100 Faces in 100 Days Project paintings.
My intentions for this project were to:
๏ become a better painter
๏ do what I love most: paint people from life
๏ develop a real sense of community/belongedness/enthusiasm around art in general -- involve lots of people, young and old, friends and strangers
๏ be enriched through listening, talking, understanding other people's stories and perspectives -- one on one.
