Jill Andre

For the past twenty years, Andre has been life-drawing models, performers, and dancers in motion.  From these tens of thousands of drawings, only a few get distilled into paintings. Because she draws moving models, Andre captures her figures in those positions and spaces between poses that we often feel, but rarely see. She conveys the vulnerability of the model, the artist, and the viewer to create a shared and intimate insecurity. 

Andre lures us into her square compositions by placing her childlike figures in a world of tasty color.  Once within the painting, however, it is the emotional tension that holds and challenges the viewer. With luscious details in some situations, and obscured information in others, Andre’s narrative images, rather than feeling like short stories, feel like pages torn from a novel.

This collection features Polyptychs or artworks on multiple panels. After simultaneously painting twelve 6” x 6” works in the Moroccan Sketchbook series and being thrilled with the results, I decided to focus new work on multiple panels. I like that the paintings work together but can also stand alone.

A colorful trip to Morocco in 2019 inspired this series. Painted the entire collection simultaneously, while visiting virtually with friends and collectors during SFOS 2020’s ‘Gold’ event. The conversations were a pleasant distraction and somehow kept me out of my head and my brush moving.

As an artist that sketches live models in a studio, it has been weirdly thrilling to watch from behind a screen, models posing in their own environments. The Zoom format has introduced a new level of intimacy between artist and model, a powerful hybrid of sorts, seeing close-up from far-away.

Zoom models aren’t nude, yet somehow they feel considerably more exposed, revealing an internal quality that transcends the physical. ’Shelter in Place’ is a look at this new closeness, where access has been allowed and alter egos uncovered.

Everyday, watching people in the moment sparks my creativity.  Feeling compelled to draw what I see, I draw people in their element, finding the tiniest of details like valuable gems, filtering each one through my imagination. Though my 50 artworks created in 50 days comprise a wide range of subject matters, each ‘Single Serving’ was delightfully inspired by life as I see it.

I’m able to satisfy my craving to draw people without invading their space by looking downward and sketching what I see, their feet. Feet are very expressive and whether resting or in motion, their tension can be felt. This particular series was focused on composition and color, rather than subject matter.

These paintings are inspired by figures in atmospheric surroundings. Between silhouette and surface, there is a dynamic visual push and pull.

“Jill Andre’s paintings do not focus on cultural or critical urgency. Instead they pursue a personal and expressive sensibility and technical finesse. Andre treats the viewer to a panoply of visual delights, thick and washy surfaces, fluid, broken and flashy brushwork which is an important activity for her and not something merely reserved for notation and study. Andre’s work is characterized by vague references to the figure and fetishization of craft.”

-Edward Stanton, Director, Drawing Circus