Hidden Truths, 2019

Julie Edwards  

Born in 1970 in Lancashire, Julie Edwards is a British contemporary painter who has lived in Wolverhampton since 1991, where she now creates from her studio at the bottom of her garden. With a first degree in visual arts, she has taught painting and visual studies at the City of Wolverhampton since 1994, a teaching role enriched by her active artistic career.

Her aesthetic universe is fully inscribed in semi-abstract landscape figuration, influenced by nature, the coastline, light and its chromatic balances. Julie often goes on adventures in the field – seaside or countryside – with notebook and easel, to translate her impressions through sketches and drafts before interpreting them in painting. Her work is deeply introspective, nourished by inner emotions, literary, mythological or spiritual references, and the quest for a fragile balance between abstraction and representation.

She works primarily in oil and mixed media, creating compositions where the earthy palette, rich textures, and painterly touches evoke the mystique of landscapes. Her approach is often described as meditative, as each canvas is born from a layering of paintings depicting a felt experience, a "dialogue" between the artist, the canvas, and the viewer.

Since 2020, Julie has been creating in a dedicated studio built in her backyard, while continuing to exhibit her work in galleries across the UK, as well as in San Francisco, Canada, and online. Notable exhibitions include a virtual solo exhibition, Beyond Imperfections (2020–2021), organized by Gallery 44 in Canada, which focused on her creative process in the face of personal adversity.

In 2024, she co-founded the Sabotage Gallery, a contemporary urban art space in Worthing, Sussex. She also produced illustrations, including Venice Notebooks, series titled “Between the Sea and the Downs," “Crowded Distancing," and book illustration projects.