I am a figurative painter so I paint from the world around me rather than from my imagination.
I have painted all my life from the age of about 10 and I largely have my father to thank for this as he bought me oil paint from a young age .
I remember buying old canvases in the Portobello market (a very different second hand market then) which I could paint over and use. I painted because it just always made me feel good and that feeling, the need to paint,has not changed.
I taught myself from various books but the most important were those of Fletcher Watson, a very generous teacher who I never met and I am so grateful to him his books are all still available.
When I stopped medicine in 2000 it was a terrible shock to lose income and status and I did a 3 year training to become an Alexander teacher .This is tool for change and without it I would have been lost and would have been unable to cope with the totally different way of life of a professional painter.I also realised I need a good back as painting is very physical career.
I was fortunate to have lessons from Zohar a wonderful teacher of classical painting in North London who has been a very important person in my career. I also continue to copy the classics, Rembrandt being the artist I most admire.
I have done a lot of nude work and this has developed into a free way of painting portraits in one sitting,
The work from the model has translated easily into work from the landscape so I have come to love painting seascapes and trees, Here nature imposes hurry ( tide coming in, dogs etc) and forces change and decisiveness.
I love to paint portraits in public so parties etc and more recently at a conference.
so please get in touch to see work or for me to paint people at your event!
and above all to be painted your self.
Julia Interview