Julia Burton Collage & Painting
About Julia
I’d had a love of photography from a very early age and started making collages using my images and found pictures from magazines in the late '80s. It was really through the making of collages, finding weird and wonderful imagery and my love of vivid colour that I eventually started evening classes in painting which led to a Textile degree at Chelsea College of Art & Design in the early '90s.
At Chelsea I created a collection of hand-painted, screen printed silk scarves. My work as a textile designer took me to Lake Como in Italy where I was fortunate to work for Mantero, one of the world's leading textile design studios, designing ties for the likes of Salvatore Ferragamo, Longchamps & Ermenegildo Zegna. I then worked in a small studio in London, eventually freelancing and selling my work all over the world.
In 2005 I started painting in oils, but it wasn’t until I met Phillippa Clayden who taught me the language of painting, that my love of both collage and painting came together and I began to create weird and wonderful fantasy worlds.
For the past 15 years my artwork has been focused on painting, collage and mixed media. I work intuitively and am driven by the physical process of painting, gesture and the expressive potential of colour. The inspiration for my work comes from my subconscious and the textured surface of the canvas where I see memories, dreams and elements of everyday life, the possible and the impossible.
Full of texture, colour and ethereal imagery. The process can be quite a painful journey, slowly teasing out the story, pulling things forward pushing things back and watching how each painting evolves….. as a result the viewer is invited inward toward something beyond the surface, deep within the painting, and within themselves.
Recent exhibitions include:
February 2024, ‘Between the Lines’, House of Smalls, Chipping Campden, GLOS
Jan/Feb 2024Green & Stone works on paper 2024, Fulham Road, London
September 2023, Expressions of Judaism, group show, Kent House, Knightsbridge, London
April 2023, Lingering Memories, Fox Yard, Stowmarket
D31 Art Prize
October 2022, The Lido Open, Margate
March 2022, All the Same Age at Different Times, Fitzrovia Gallery, London March 2022
March 2021, Holy Art, London March 2021
2018, Sternberg Gallery, solo show, London
2014, JW3, Ivy House, London
I currently enjoy teaching life drawing at Framestore, Soho. Beginners drawing classes, painting
and life drawing workshops at City Academy and Intuitive Abstract painting and Beginners Oil Painting at The Art Stables, East Finchley. For further information about teaching workshops, courses or private lessons please contact me.
Testimonials:
"Julia is a great instructor who sets good exercises and gives valuable feedback." S. Nyman
I very much enjoyed Julia’s Intuitive Abstract Painting class. From the first session Julia encouraged me to experiment and be bold. Julia set some interesting exercises both individually and as a class, but I also had the freedom to try out my own ideas if I wished. Julia always had suggestions if I felt stuck and I experimented with collage and charcoal as well as acrylic painting. I hadn’t done much painting before, but this wasn’t an obstacle. I learnt how to mix colours, use various brushes and tools, and produce different effects. I really loved the process involved, but also came away with many paintings I’m proud of. I was encouraged to visit exhibitions, which inspired me. The other students were very friendly and supportive, and I learned a lot from observing how others were working. M. Ambrose
One Day Beginners Life Drawing workshop:
"I loved every minute of your class! Even those bits when I felt a little (well quite a bit) paralysed with nerves. You really relaxed the group and brought out the best in us - certainly me - amazing when I look back on my pics and wish I’d taken a video at the end to show just how wonderfully you show cased our work and really made us see things in a different way and appreciate light and dark! Wasn’t it an incredible journey!" N. Christie
"Thank you very much for a great day. I really enjoyed how you structured the day. It was especially good for me to do the short quick exercises using different materials. It highlights to me how my ‘need to get it right gets in the way of my creativity. I really liked having the music in the background and the way you worked with the light on our last exercise. I would like to do a day again...." V. R.
The Intuitive Abstract Painting course has been a joy to me, and is my first experience with acrylics. Every member of the friendly group is encouraged and inspired during the lesson by the teacher, Julia. I am very much a beginner and have learnt so many techniques and experimented with numerous ideas on the course. But, however you like work is taken into account and there is absolutely no pressure to conform to a way of working, or indeed what type of paintings you produce. For me, this is what Art is all about. I strongly recommend the Art Stables as a great facility, but particularly this course for it’s balance of teaching and freedom to express yourself." C.Clark