 Jill Soukup’s striking animal portraiture clearly communicates her appreciation and reverence for the subject. As a youth, Jill Soukup volunteered to exercise neighboring horses and started doing animal portraits, receiving numerous commissions. Jill had access to endless animal references through the Veterinary Clinic owned by her parents.
As a kid, she says, “my biggest love was for horses”. Jill can remember sketching from her father’s horse anatomy text in complete fascination. “They’re amazingly beautiful and proportioned perfectly.”
After graduating from CSU with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Jill Soukup worked in graphic design for 11 years. While employed in the exhibits department of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, she maintained her connection to fine arts by taking painting courses. One student show resulted in a near sell-out of Jill’s work and catalyzed a realization that painting was all she really wanted to do.
Today Jill resides in Denver Colorado where she can be found in her basement, painting full time. Her body of work successfully navigates the human figure, architecture, animals and landscape with vivid color and exceptional balance.
Drawn to horses
A new exhibition of equestrian and architectural paintings has given Jill Soukup a chance to experiment not only with a recently discovered large format but also with painterly concerns like value, composition and abstract shape.
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“For me, everything comes down to core composition and a balance of shapes and values.” Says Soukup. “When I see something beautiful I want to interpret it in my own way back in the studio. From the dishes in my sink to a bustling city scene, I find inspiration everywhere in the interplay of shapes, values, edges, textures and colors. Intuition and a sense of composition bring these elements together.”
While Soukup has always been known for her diverse subject matter, she only recently started to paint horses because of the compositional elements they bring to the canvas. Once she started painting them, though, she has been inspired by a desire to paint one life-sized.
I’ve wanted to do it for a long time,” says Soukup. “And I had so much fun doing them large – it’s easy to be expressive when you are painting large and they have been extremely well received. Can you imagine having a life-sized horse in your own living room?
Many of these new paintings combine the image of the horse with the human figure. While this particular combination is new to her, the theme is something that has been in her work since the beginning.
“Thematically, I find myself returning again and again to the juxtaposition between rigid, mechanical, man-made objects and the fluid, organic aspects of nature,” says Soukup. “Discovering that despite their contrasts, they share and exchange the same tendencies.
Soukup is also interested in the ways the objects in the paintings are able to break down the space of the canvas into abstract shapes. Thus, tree branches; rooftops and other architectural elements all serve as ways to create smaller, geometric shapes within the picture plane.
“I’m interested in the way space is broken down,” says Soukup. “For instance, a staircase gives a linear breakdown and breaks up the canvas into angular, abstract shapes. The same is true for winter trees with the branches breaking down the sky and whatever is behind it. I look at the world abstractly, and to me it is all about abstract structure and how things are put together fundamentally.”
Soukup also favors a more expressive, painterly style to achieve this look that she is after. This style also leaves room for collectors to have a more unique and personal reaction to each painting.
“My philosophy in painting is that it is really important to know technical aspects and you can’t be expressive unless you understand these principles.” Says Soukup. “At the same time, you can get too caught up in the technical part of it because when you get too involved, something is missing. And, when you get excited about something, you want people to notice it as well.”
American Art Collector ~ March 2007
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