Julia’s background is as a highly trained Classical musician. She attended The Royal College of Music from the age of fourteen, and then went on to study under a scholarship program at The Royal Academy of Music in London.
The recipient of many music awards and accolades, she graduated in 1994.
Her music career took a diverse turn a few years later, when she began touring with artist Bryan Ferry, and later with Roxy Music on their Reunion World tour of 2001.
As both harpist and percussionist, Julia has toured the world with various artists, and has been a member of Rod Stewart’s band for the past thirteen years.
You might argue that her background in music makes for a natural progression into the world of art and painting.
In Julia’s own words:
My study of music and my classical training engrained in me an obsession with technique, and the search for perfection in technical execution. For the longest time I could not understand why there was always an underlying dissatisfaction with this search.
Much of my art is a deliberate unravelling of this approach.
There’s a need to unburden myself from the pressure and illusive search for perfection. I want to create an expression that is more spontaneous, unrehearsed.
To paint without concern for whether I’m doing it correctly, without worry of the end result. To paint for the pure joy of playing with colour and form.
Using soft pastel on UArt sanded paper, I can layer colour and take my time to blend and re-layer, creating velvet textures not unlike petals themselves.
Three aspects of flowers and plants have become my primary fascination and focus:
The flower in its entirety. Certain flowers should be painted whole.
The centre of the bloom. Here I want to be drawn deep into the nucleus, to feel as though I’m surrounded by petals and foliage. As if my nose were buried in the bud, drawing scent.
The third is an aspect which I call a ‘Profusion’. These pieces begin somewhere deep within a flower, or flowers. Folds of petals create mandalas in which the eye of the viewer gets lost, moving, seeking and discovering. I don’t want to know where I am, and I don’t want the viewer to either. I try to capture the essence and energy of the flower.
I always know when I need to paint, and I know what I need to paint.
The thing that both excites and scares me more than anything else, is the feeling of discovery in every piece. Not knowing quite how things will turn out. The gap between my vision, and what's evolving on the canvas.
Perhaps I load the paper with a colour that I haven’t planned on using. Take the shadows to a new depth. Create wider contrast between light and dark. All these things feel somewhat dangerous. I don’t want to get too comfortable.
'Julia has mastered a dimension that pulls the viewer in for deep contemplation. Her Profusions and Centres are like mandalas. The eye moves around, constantly seeking and discovering...' - Melissa Piper, Getty Museum, LA
'Julia incorporates the elements and principles of both art and design in a way that is simply off the charts'
Steven Hanna - sculptor, jewelry designer, owner, head designer and curator at Accents, Santa Monica.
'Julia's paintings are timeless and classic....softly feminine, yet bold and dynamic, not unlike the flowers themselves' N.Johnson