Feelings are the inspiration for Julie Barnes’ narrative paintings. She explores the power of wonderment and hope, and offers the viewer an opportunity for stillness and an awareness of the threads that connect us. Sometimes, though not often, the shape for a painting comes to her before she starts work, but mostly the colours and surface texture influence the final result, the layers of paint and other mediums evolving into shapes and images. Barnes’ work combines imagination, inner vision, mythology and folklore with forms from both the visible natural world, and the unseen ‘other-world’. She uses traditional techniques, pure pigments and natural ingredients to make her own paints and encaustic mediums.

Julie Barnes has received the Royal Scottish Academy Keith Prize, Creative Scotland VACMA (twice, most recently in 2020) and the 2021 Balavoulin Art Award. She is an invited member of Visual Arts Scotland Council.

http://www.juliebarnes.me.uk

@Julietheartist1