ABOUT


Gillian King was born and raised in Winnipeg, Mb. Her artistic abilities emerged from an early age, as she explored and nurtured her creative curiosity on her own, in school, and through art classes taken at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Desiring to hone her tactical skills while developing her own artistic voice, she enrolled at the University of Manitoba School of Art in 2007, where she will complete her thesis in painting next year.

Her unique approach to painting has undergone a gradual evolution through experimentation with various media, from acrylic graphic paintings on cardboard, to sophisticated, large, abstract oils on canvas. Her current philosophy is simple and clean: Organic shapes, often abstracted from life, patterned and painted with a vibrant, modern colour palette, juxtaposed and overlapped on large canvases, which create dreamy and surreal tableaux, attracting the eye as well as stirring the senses.

Her painterly style and entrepreneurial spirit have also merged into a successful jewelry-making venture, a gorgeous translation of her colourful, whimsical canvases into abstract, one-of-a-kind earrings and accessories made from yarn, felts, and recycled materials. Gill sells her pieces both online and in boutiques around Winnipeg, and aspires to, in addition to pursuing a Masters in painting, attend design school for metalwork.

Gill is a vegetarian and coffee aficionado, who continues to reside in Winnipeg with her cats Frankie (named after her favourite hot sauce, 'Frank's') and Toulouse (after Toulouse Lautrec, the French painter)
. Ten percent of her revenue goes to support the Kwagala Foundation, which helps communities in Uganda attain a sustainable living, and she plans on participating, for her second year, in the Children of the World auction to support women and children affected by the Rwandan genocide. Her current body of work displays an impressive maturation from acrylics into oil painting, an indication of her un-ending curiosity, which will continue to reap new and exciting results.


- Suzanne Pringle