Art Gallery

Jill Dickin Schinas works principally in watercolour, creating distinctive, vibrant images of boats, buildings, and anything else which takes her fancy. She also uses gouache, oil paint, pen and ink, and charcoal. Her line drawings and cartoons have been used to illustrate books, magazines, and leaflets, to adorn letterheads and websites, and as T-shirt designs. Her paintings have been used on public information boards and greetings cards.

Please note that the work displayed on this website is all copyright and may not be reproduced, copied, or used for any purpose whatsoever without the prior consent of Jill Dickin Schinas. Some of the images are available for purchase. The artist also accepts commissions for all types of artwork except portraits. To learn more please click on the shopping trolley icon or contact us.

My paintings reflect my interests - in the sea and sailing boats, in old buildings, and in people and their pastimes and festivities. These categories often overlap; for example, one of my most recent interests is in making historic reconstructions - accurate representations of boats or buildings which are now long gone, or “long by time defaced”. These paintings are brought to life by the inclusion of people clad in the costume of the time and engaging in pastimes appropriate to the era and the setting. I generally find that oil and gouache are more suitable than watercolour for these “genre” scenes.
Most of the paintings in this online gallery are watercolours, and most depict places and scenes in England or Spain. Boats and the sea are especially well represented, being favourite interests. There are also several images of windmills, a few of light aircraft, some of trees, and a great many of village streets, houses, churches, and inns.

I like the brightness and transparency of watercolour paints. They provide what William Blake called “pure colour, unmuddied by oil”. Although I attended art schools it was not through my tutors that I learnt to use this medium - the tutors on my fine art course were interested only in turning out Marxists and Leninists - and so I had to find out for myself how to lay on washes and work wet in wet, and how to use the colours to maximum effect.
Modern art schools do tend to look askance at watercolour, seeming to regard it as a medium for Sunday painters, but at the college I attended we were not even taught to how to work with oils! I feel very strongly on this subject, believing that I, and a great many other artists, could have gone a lot further a lot quicker if the art colleges did what colleges are supposed to do. A course in geology teaches the student all that is known of geology, a course in maths teaches maths, and a course in fine art ought to teach the rudiments of artistic technique. There was a lot to be said for the olden times system, of apprenticeship in a master craftsman’s studio!

This website is listed with Key Bromley Art Supplies.

Copyright © 2008 Jill Dickin Schinas.
All images on this website are copyright and may not be reproduced, copied, or used for any purpose whatsoever without the prior consent of Jill Dickin Schinas.