Jill Dickin Schinas is an artist, writer, photographer, yachtswoman, and mother of three. She lives, with her husband, the kids, a dog, and a cat, on a half-built cruising yacht.
Jill Dickin Schinas works with watercolour, oil, and pen-and-ink, producing fine-art, illustrations, cartoons, and graphic designs. Her paintings are suitable for reproduction as greetings cards or prints. Her cartoons and line drawings have been used to illustrate books, leaflets, and websites.
Jill is also the author of three books - two about her sailing experiences, and one a brief history of Chichester Harbour. She has also written articles for Practical Boat Owner, Yachting World, and Small World Magazine on such varied subjects as building a steel boat in South Africa, visiting the Cape Verde islands, and homeschooling.
When there isn't time to paint or write, Jill uses her camera to record events and scenes. The Schinas family never spends very long in the same place; when not travelling by boat they journey overland in their ancient campervan. These travels provide plenty of opportunity to gather images of foreign festivals, exciting landscapes, islands, sand dunes, strange flora and fauna, and so forth, and some of these are now on display in the photo library
Before you ask - Schinas is a Greek name and, as such, is pronounced in the same way as other similar words of Greek origin such as scheme, schizo, and schism. You really should have known that; after all you went to skool, didn't you, and not shool? Jill uses the names Dickin, Schinas, and Dickin Schinas, according to her mood… with the result that you can find books and paintings attributed to any of these three names.
The Schinas family have been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers, including Yachting World, The News of the World, Sainsbury's Magazine, Chichester Observer, The West Sussex Gazette, The Times, The Telegraph, and The Independent. The kids have even made it onto the front page of the Daily Mail !
