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by Julia Whitehead
Painting : oil 80 x 60 x 4 cm
Second NOT DISPLAYED BLUR TEXT
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About the artwork
Unique work
Hand-signed by artist
Invoice from the gallery
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Artwork sold in perfect condition
Origin: United Kingdom
Paintings, of whatever scale, start with a brightly coloured acrylic background onto the white canvas. The abstract nature of this background painting often dictates which direction the final painting will go and elements of the paint layers are left to show through the overpainting to varying degrees. Oil paint is built up over several layers, sometimes wet on wet, other times the oil is allowed to dry sufficiently to paint over, often resulting in a highly textured surface which creates shadows of its own.
The focus on these figure paintings originated with a fascination of the shadows cast by figures when viewed aerially. The beautiful shapes cast on pavements are generally hard to appreciate when life is moving all around but are mesmerising when freeze framed in a photograph. Equally, the patterns made by bodies moving in a crowd or seen from unusual angles, have an artistic quality of their own.
“I enter into a slightly meditative state when painting, especially with the more impressionistic figurative crowd scenes. As in life, each small figure takes on a characteristic of its own and has its own individual relationship to the figures that surround it. People seem to enjoy the paintings as they see something new in them each time they look at them.”
About the seller
London Contemporary Art • United Kingdom
Artsper seller since 2015
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Julia was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire in 1969. She studied Illustration & Printmaking at Cambridge. Her work focuses on figurative themes, in particular crowd scenes. Initially more abstract, concentrating on the shadows and shapes that people make when they are grouped en masse, it soon developed into a naturalistic style.
"We are familiar with the scenes of busy, crowded streets but don't always see them from a different perspective or remove ourselves from the crowd to be able to stand and watch. The shapes, colours, shadows and dynamics of moving bodies whether seen individually or as a group, provide a never-ending source of inspiration to me as an artist".
On completion of her studies, Julia was signed up with an agent in the UK. Her work was published and distributed worldwide as fine art prints, greeting cards and textiles under her maiden name of Hawkins. Working as a successful commercial artist meant that Julia had little time to create paintings for sale in galleries or exhibit in shows. In more recent times, following the birth of her two children and the consequential break in her commercial career, Julia is now keen to concentrate on promoting her original oil paintings.
Julia works primarily with oil on quite large-scale canvas. Success as a commercial artist was partly due to her ability to create new styles and to approach a wide variety of subject matters. This has continued with her canvas paintings with subjects ranging from figurative to landscape as well as still life and in a variety of styles and mediums.