Jill Banks
BIO
"Stylistically, I continue to evolve from realism with feeling to impressionism with even more emotion and simplification."
Jill turned art into a career in 2003. An oil painter, Jill teaches plein air, portraits/figurative, still-life and personal project classes. Her paintings are loose and impressionist. Each year, Jill teaches multiple classes a week over three semesters at the Arts of Great Falls. In fact, she was ranked as one of the Top 9 Painting and Drawing Teachers in the Metro DC area by expertise.com.
A highly accomplished artist, Jill has received several national awards and recognitions, including First Place at Knoxville's Artists on Location 2022, Best Symphony Award at the 2022 Gloucester Plein Air Invitational, Honorable Mention in the American Impressionist Society's Associate Online Exhibition, #1 Top Seller Telluride Plein Air 2020, First Place-Quick Draw and Top Seller at Telluride Plein Air 2018, Best of Show in the September 2016 BoldBrush Painting Competition (out of 1440 entries), Best in Show at the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club's (CLWAC) Members Exhibition in NYC, three Best of Show awards at the Art League, an Honorable Mention of Artistic Excellence at Salon International, two Certificates of Merit in the Salmagundi Club's Non-Member Exhibitions, three memorial awards at the CLWAC Annual Juried Exhibition at the National Arts Club, three-time 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. Her work is featured in several popular art magazines. First Place (Best in Show) at Paint Great Falls multiple times including 2023.
She also exhibits at top fine art festivals; sends work off to juried regional, national and international exhibitions; paints in juried and invitational plein air competitions (including Gloucester Plein Air, Knoxville's Artist on Location, Sedona Plein Air, En Plein Air Texas, Telluride Plein Air, Wayne Plein Air, Mountain Maryland, Harford Plein Air and more); takes on a small number of portrait commissions; and travels for personal painting trips and inspiration. In 2022, she took on chairing the 52nd National Women Artists of the West Exhibition held in November-January at McBride Gallery in Annapolis, MD. No moss grows under her feet.