Website: julie.debastion.com

Statement

I come from a musical, European background, rich in folk lore, myth, fairytales and dance.

Growing up in chilly, post war Britain I speedily relocated to New York City where, in 1973  I lived and studied art, dwelling amongst the Abstract Expressionists,  Rothko, Pollock, Kline, de Kooning etc.

I found a home in this fertile ground for many years; I had many good and inspirational teachers, my skill, understanding and horizons expanded.

In 1983 I obtained a First Class Hons. degree in painting and printmaking from F.I.T and the Pratt Institute of Art and Design in Brooklyn. I also won a scholarship to the first opening session at the Johnson Studio School of Art in Vermont.

In 1989, I returned to the U.K. My work continues in comparative isolation partly self induced, partly circumstantial.

In this sparser soil I have to dig deeper.

My work grows from roots of what I perceive to be my inner nature, its resonance being found in outer Nature’s infinite manifestations. Incidents, accidents and chance coexist, where, it seems an invisible hand, an unseeing eye of an unknowable origin, passes through and manifests in forms of light and space on a given surface.

Memory, acts as the lightning rod for this force.

This incantation is both homage and gift to the grandeur and mystery of something greater than ourselves;

Like when people scratch their names on walls or rocks, wanting to be fused with the spirit of the place and their journey, or just made known that they too had passed this way.

It is as if I see the transient and fragility echoed in the ineffable. It is something which remains hidden and forever escapes our perception. The pathways are those on which we never arrive; The horizon is beyond where we will never see.

These are daydreams of infinity

CV

Born Stratford upon Avon, England    1948

Studied  Central School of Art. London 1967

BFA Hons. degree Fine Art  Pratt Institute, Brooklyn NY 1983

Exhibitions

View Julie's current and future exhibitions

Galerie Meisterschueler      Berlin                          2007

Stadtmuseum                    Berlin                          2007  

A&B                                 London     U.K              2007

Leamington Art Gallery and Museum   U.K             2005

Owen Taylor Art               Warwick     U.K             2003

Galerie Horizon                 Paris         France        1995

Derby Museum and Art Gallery           U.K             1996

Herbert Art Gallery and Museum         U.K             1992

Brattleboro Museum and Art Gallery    U.S.A          1983

Brooklyn Museum and Art Gallery       U.S.A          1982

“My colours and forms are drawn from Nature, I use oils, pastels and monoprinting techniques.

I usually draw in colour with pastels and use spatulas or my fingers to work in oils or printing inks.

It is an emotive experience to create a visual and believable space where I can enter into and move around, as a dancer would move to music. Colours take form and resolve themselves  into places where there are distant horizons and pathways, filled with  memories and longings.

It’s a passionate game I play with myself, to see if I can create something I can rest in, which continues to generate light and space, and contains  the energy and the unity of the creative force of Nature “