“My dreams are very vivid. They accompany me throughout my every day; sometimes as a whisper, sometimes as an endless loop of dreams that I remember, often decades old. While I can’t make sense of them on a logical level, they speak to me through symbols and atmospheres that are palpable. And because I can’t explain them in words, I paint images of them.

My children’s faces evoke both deep love and awe in me; being able to recreate their beauty feels like creating magic. My process starts by looking through photographs I’ve taken; sometimes a portrait and sometimes a landscape with a strong sense of place. I choose settings because they are evocative of my memories and dreams: a day at the fair, an abandoned house, a stone watchtower. I use Photoshop as a ‘sketching’ tool to combine different images in different layers and combinations. I use the result of this as a reference for painting.

I keep formal elements in mind as well: for example, strong diagonals in my compositions, using jewel-like colors, playing with surface vs. pictorial space. I often work using a monochromatic underpainting and then apply layers of colored paint on top. This allows me to tackle the drafting in one step and the color in several more passes, resulting in luminous images.

I am available to paint commissioned portraits in both my narrative style as well as a more straight-forward, traditional style.”

—Jill Pabich