“It starts with a simple outline or a printed image on a field of color. Then paint is layered on, sometimes with a brush, or more often with something else – the wheels of a cheap skateboard or a toy car, maybe – and paint is then shaved off with a knife, added back on, then scraped away again. Iron filings may be added, made to oxidize, then removed, leaving the ghost of rust to color everything before it. More paint, more scraping, more rust – a cyclical practice where the surface imagery and textures inform and are informed by the imagery and textures below.

The depth this type of layering can create feels limitless. Each new layer, while obscuring what was there before, will never truly conceal it. A color may shine through, or a texture will catch light, maybe drop a shadow. The past is very much present throughout, weaving a web where process, time, and subject are intertwined.

In addition to being highly textural, my work borrows heavily from the composition and palette of the natural world.  Dominant horizontal lines and the scarcity of any foreground objects make strong allusion to landscape.  Repetition of form and color lends itself to watery reflection.”

Jill Hampshire received her BFA from Ohio University in 2002. She lives and works in Columbus, Ohio.

© 2023 JILL HAMPSHIRE