Gill began to paint Madonna's at age 51. Until that time she had painted only live subjects and landscapes. She bought a carpenter's atelier in Auzon, a small town in the Auvergne. There were many planks of wood remaining in the workshop, and she writes that she simply had the desire to paint the Madonna on them. Later she took icon painting classes and studied 1000-year-old frescoes at St. George Church on Lake Constance. Gill wrote: 'I am happy to share with you these paintings, whose origins remain something of a mystery even to me.' [Click on the paintings to see them in more detail]