Janice Gill painted and drew from an early age, completing adult community art education at Southland Technical College, Invercargill NZ. Predominantly self-taught. Her subject matter depicts people and New Zealand society; the irony and contrasts of the rich and poor, powerful and powerless, young and old. Story telling with meaning in a time of expressionism, minimalism, post modernism. As well as painting contemporary New Zealand life, Gill has painted three historical series: Minnie Dean, the Southland baby farmer, only woman hanged in NZ in 1890's; Hokonui Whisky, Southland illicit whisky distillation of the early 1900's; and the Maungatapu Murders, highwaymen active during gold - rush times in Nelson's 1860's.