Jill Jepson with a floral watercolor
Tracy Nelson
When you first meet Jill Jepson, you are struck by her quiet manner, attention to detail, and analytical thinking skills. That’s why it’s so interesting that in her art she prefers “breaking the rules.”
She says, “It’s a freeing experience. I can express myself. Art is a great mental challenge. I do something art-related every day.”
Although Jill has had no formal training in art and considers herself “an artist in training,” she has been creating watercolors and mixed media works for the past 20 years. She enjoys taking classes and “moving from the analytical to the creative.” Jill has sold some of her paintings, and her work is on display at the Roadrunner Grill. She also enjoys making cards for friends and family, but notes that these small projects can take as much time as a full-sized painting. While living in Sedona, Jill was a member of the Northern Arizona Watercolor Society, and she once taught a watercolor lesson in Italian to her language class. She is half-Italian and has studied the language for years but found the assignment of teaching painting to her classmates in Italian to be extremely challenging!
In addition to watercolor, Jill enjoys working in mixed media and collage. She explains that these techniques use a variety of materials: canvas, handmade paper, magazines, tissue paper, pages from old books, and even found objects like leaves or buttons. She jokes that her den/art studio is full of things that she has collected in case she can add them to her work. You might find Jill at an estate sale purchasing old books that she can use in her art. She “loves the texture” of the objects and the three-dimensional aspect of these forms of art.
Jill and her husband moved to SaddleBrooke four years ago after living in Sedona for 22 years and San Francisco prior to that time. She worked as a property manager, and then when they retired, they purchased an RV and began traveling. They lived in the RV full time for five years while they explored national parks in the United States and Canada. Through their travels, they met many other RVers and remain friends with them today. Today, Jill and her husband enjoy playing card games, bocce ball, and hiking. Jill is a member of the putting group the Verde Sputters and occasionally plays golf. They are parents to two boys and have three grandchildren.
If you are interested in learning new art skills and meeting others in the art community, please join the SaddleBrooke Fine Arts Guild. The calendar of upcoming classes, information on membership, and descriptions of upcoming events can be found at www.saddlebrookefinearts.org.