Julie Poulsen

Julie Poulsen was born and educated in Brisbane and completed a Diploma of Creative Arts in Toowoomba.  It was at the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, in an era exemplified by non-directed arts study and limited formal tuition, that Julie formulated a mindset of investigation. This uninhibited exploratory three years founded and characterised her future art practice.

Finalist in various awards including Heysen Prize for interpretation of Place receiving a special judge’s commendation, Paddington Art Prize judged by John Firth Smith, Rio Tinto & Martin Hanson Award judged by Nick Mitzevich, Sheraton Mirage Art Prize judged by Susan McCulloch and Ray Crooke, and the Fleurieu Peninsular Art Prize judged by  Ron Radford, Rick Amor, Sarah Thomas as well as the Fleurieu Peninsular The Art of Food and Wine Prize. In 2017 Julie was awarded by Pat Hoffie the overall winner in the Rio Tinto Martin Hanson Memorial Prize along with being a finalist in the EMSLA award judged by John McDonald art critic for the Sydney Morning Herald as well as a finalist in the Brisbane Art Prize.  Her work is in the collection of Cairns Regional Gallery and in corporate and private collection in  New York, Melbourne, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Cairns.  She also exhibited successfully with Art Atrium at Sydney Contemporary in 2015 and 2017.

Julie Poulsen’s instinctive creativity, curiosity and feel for colour and composition were informed by a diversity of climates and lifestyles in her formative years. From the deep green wilds of Papua New Guinea to the shiny, bustling Gold Coast and from traditional Toowoomba and the United Kingdom to frontier Cooktown, Julie’s travels have fed her natural tendency towards exploration, discovery and experimentation.

Tapping in to the sensitivities of printmaking, the gustiness of oils, the pliability of soft sculpture and the spontaneous bliss of drawing, each altered direction reflected the changing and intersecting pathways in Julie’s life. Painting remained the focus until 2002 when the nature of her art practice shifted. The new works became light and open a combination of painting, drawing, printmaking and stitched assemblage. The change was a return to the source, an extension of works started at Art College. In 2005, an exhibition of new works at Cairns Regional Gallery was to clarify and establish this new direction for Julie in a dramatic way. Décor Sermon was 50 metres of artwork 148cms high covering the walls of the Loft Art Space. It was a raucous combination of materials – stitched panels, found objects and thought-provoking imagery – presented as a playful reinvention of the puffed up notion of the perfect interior décor.

Since 2007 landscapes have remained a common theme, sightseen interpretations of Far North Queensland. Country for birds in 2013 was an expansion on works produced for Glimpse a joint exhibition with Jenny Valmadre Cairns Regional Gallery in 2012. This major show was highlighted with a film produced by Catherine Hunter and documented by Bruce Inglis. A Residency at the Art Vault Mildura in 2015 meant an alternative landscape palette and fresh content including a series of large landscapes centred around the Pink Lakes.

With Julie’s touch, elements of the everyday take on a life of their own as unique works of art, testaments to her ongoing quest for new visual narratives and her delightfully unpredictable style.

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OPENING HOURS
Wednesday - Friday 12:00 - 5:00 pm
Saturday 12.00 - 4.00 pm
Other times by appointment

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we live and work– the Gadigal/Bidjigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay respects to their elders past, present and emerging.