Holladay artist Jill Buckmiller fills every brush stroke of oil on canvas with a sense of joy and love. As a fine arts painter she strives to guide the viewer to find the divine within and to discover the emotional beauty in nature and all things beautiful.

The Holladay Arts Council has selected Buckmiller as the Holladay Artist of the Month for September 2024. This recognition acknowledges Buckmiller’s talent and skill as a master fine arts painter and her ability to capture higher-level emotional moments on canvas.

While working to complete her general education requirements as she pursued a degree in pharmacy at the University of Utah, Buckmiller simultaneously earned an associate’s degree in graphic design from Salt Lake Community College. Buckmiller decided to hang up her pharmacy coat and not continue with her degree at the University of Utah when she met and married her husband Jim and began to raise a family. 

Through an opportunity to teach in the program “Artists in the Classroom” at her children’s elementary, Buckmiller learned to write art lesson plans. Each lesson incorporated clear learning targets for the principles of art and design, and Buckmiller developed sample resource materials for other volunteer educators to use and implement. She had never considered the possibility of becoming a teacher, but from this experience she re-enrolled at the University of Utah and received a secondary education degree with an emphasis in art and a minor in chemistry. 

After completing her teaching degree, Buckmiller began exploring the possibilities of employment and interviewed at a youth residential treatment center to teach art.

“It felt like the perfect fit,” Buckmiller said, “but the treatment center was only hiring for a part-time art teaching position, and I needed a full-time job. They were willing to offer a full-time position if I were willing to teach high school chemistry in addition to art. I agreed to do it.”

According to Buckmiller she taught year-round at the center and worked daily in tandem with therapists, a medical team, parents, the school and the community. 

“The students at the treatment center were there to work on advocating for themselves and to try to find the emotions they needed to express themselves,” Buckmiller said. “A lot of emotion would come out in their art. I could show the work to the therapist and say, ‘I think this is something you need to talk to the student about in therapy.’ It was nice to have small classes where I could pull kids aside and talk to them one on one.” 

The students came from all over the United States to the center. As the girls finished the program and prepared to return home, Buckmiller completed a colored pencil portrait of each student, matted it, and had the adults involved in the student’s treatment sign it. Buckmiller completed over 400 student portraits while teaching.

Buckmiller taught at the youth residential treatment center for 15 years. “It was super rewarding,” she said, “and teaching provided many intrinsic rewards.” However, the need to pursue an artistic career in painting surfaced, and three years ago, she decided to retire from teaching.

“I’ve done a lot of colored pencil commissions and a lot of colored pencil art. There is something about drawing on paper I worry about, though, how archival it is,” Buckmiller said. “After I quit teaching, I thought, OK, I’m just going to throw myself into oil painting. My time to do what I really wanted to do has finally arrived. Even though I loved teaching and seeing the students’ progress, it was something I needed and wanted.”

When asked what success as an artist means, Buckmiller said success would be to paint what she loves without worrying about whether the piece would be marketable. To her, the deeper meaning of artistic success is encapsulated in the words “peace, hope and joy.”

 “There is so much hopelessness and despair in the world,” Buckmiller shares on her website. “I want to create a little piece of peace and hope. I would be eternally grateful to have my collectors see my artwork not only as a bright spot on their walls but as a conduit to joy.”

To learn more about Buckmiller’s art visit www.instagram.com/jillbuckmiller/.

Buckmiller’s art can be purchased through her website: JillBuckmillerFineArt.com.

  Additional contact information is at [email protected].

To nominate a Holladay resident for Artist of the Month, visit www.holladayarts.org/suggest-an-artist. λ