Piazza del Popolo
Jill Hoy
These paintings I call my figurative narratives. I work in the studio in the winter from memory and drawing books which I take everywhere with me: traveling, in parks, on the street, and in my living room. these drawing journals are filled with portraits, figures, architecture, and, animals, both loose notations and carefully rendered.
Certain images from life, are the initial inspirations and then I let the painting dictate and take me on its own psychic journey. Some of my Figurative Narratives edge on the surreal, while others like these are more based on reality, where I’ve traveled or lived, as I always split my year; Maine /Manhattan or Maine/ Somerville, Mass, Their forms are stylized, sculpted, with a kind of suspended movement.
One is based on a splendid piazza in Rome, another in Place des Voges, Paris, or Central Park in New York City, Chinese New Year, and firework smoke creating mystery. Because I live in both city and country the two bodies of work are very different, one working plein air from direct observation, the other as though a slow meditation of wandering in search
Jill Hoy’s work is currently on display in our Freeport, Maine Showroom. The show, Home and Away: Maine Artists Exploring the World, runs from June 2025 through January 2026.
