Julienne lives in Radnorshire and normally likes to paint the landscape, animal life and Welsh skies.
Lockdown for Julienne has been a huge expanse of space to reflect and accept contrasting emotions brought on by the pandemic – anxiety/ stillness, despair/compassion, grief and gratitude, but never contentment. It’s been challenging and unsettling, demanding new ways of being and thinking.
She states "I’ve never felt so grateful to be a painter as now; being able to create, express and make some sense of the emotional conflicts has brought release and comfort. Some paintings reflect sorrow, and the darkness of grief and others are freeing and joyful finding new hope and humour in absurdity. It has been a time for exploration and adventure, but also for self-awareness and deep contemplation – a gift for creativity.
My life to some extent has been paired down and simplified. I’ve been more resourceful and self- sufficient, not least in the creative process: grinding earth pigments, making tempera from our duck eggs, adding ash, clay and sand to my oil paints and recycling canvasses and other painting surfaces. I have used pieces of card, old wooden implements, fingers and rag to apply the paint, along with my surviving brushes -the worn-out brushes were used for marking rows in the vegetable plot!
Subject matter is never problematic. Living on a Radnorshire farm we are surrounded by beauty: skies, trees, hills and animals. Also, I keep sketch books, containing memories of so many subjects still needing to be painted! The studio interior and view from the window always offer inspiring compositions. I paint outside when possible, trundling my “weasel” through mud and snow, battling with the elements.
Strangely, now that we are emerging from lockdown I would be quite content to carry on with my new relationship with paint and quiet solitude!
